INTERIORS & ARTWORKS
A guide inside the italian churches

Summary

Piedmont
Abbazia di San Nazzaro e Celso (San Nazzaro Sesia) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38374738&postcount=87)

Lombardy
Collegiata (Castiglione Olona) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36360156&postcount=10); Battistero (Castiglione Olona) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36360198&postcount=11); Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio (Milan) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36536928&postcount=25); Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36952918&postcount=48); San Pietro in Gessate (Milan) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37239716&postcount=59)

Trentino-South Tyrol
Brixen/Bressanone Cathedral (Bressanone) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36413944&postcount=17); Abbazia di Novacella (Verna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36704254&postcount=34)

Veneto
Sant'Anastasia (Verona) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36846172&postcount=42); Basilica di San Marco (Venice) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37239694&postcount=58); Santa Maria dei Miracoli (Venice) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37897350&postcount=76); Chiesa di Santo Stefano (Venice) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38427996&postcount=89); Basilica di San Zeno (Verona) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38561510&postcount=92); San Zaccaria (Venice) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38713368&postcount=93); Oratorio di San Giorgio (Padua) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39072808&postcount=97); Scrovegni Chapel (Padua) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39072834&postcount=98)

Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Basilica di Aquileia (Aquileia) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302320&postcount=4)

Liguria
Chiesa di San Pietro (Portovenere) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37708238&postcount=75); Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (Genoa) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38503488&postcount=91)

Emilia-Romagna
Basilica di San Vitale (Ravenna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36332090&postcount=9); Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36592706&postcount=29); Santa Maria dei Servi (Bologna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36952892&[B]postcount=44); Parma Cathedral (Parma) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37019700&postcount=50); Parma Baptistery (Parma) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37019728&postcount=51); Battistero Neoniano (Ravenna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37064556&postcount=52); Battistero degli Ariani (Ravenna) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37121250&postcount=53); Abbazia di Pomposa (Codigoro) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37319380&postcount=64); Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (Castell'Arquato) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39235504&postcount=104)

Tuscany
Santo Spirito (Florence) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302288&postcount=3); Collegiata (San Gimignano) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302430&postcount=7); Sant'Agostino (San Gimignano) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302440&postcount=8); Siena Cathedral (Siena) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36460784&postcount=21); Siena Baptistery (Siena) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36460746&postcount=22); Abbazia di San Galgano (Chiusdino) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36846108&postcount=41); San Miniato al Monte (Florence) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37019564&postcount=49); Santa Maria Novella (Florence) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37239788&postcount=61); San Piero a Grado (Pisa) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37450196&postcount=66); Basilica di San Francesco (Arezzo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37523378&postcount=67); Chiesa di Orsanmichele (Florence) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37523386&postcount=68); Arezzo Cathedral (Arezzo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37523408&postcount=69); Brancacci Chapel/Santa Maria del Carmine (Florence) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37625182&postcount=73)

Marche
Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista (Urbino) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36952870&postcount=46); Duomo di Sant'Emidio (Ascoli Piceno) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37625140&postcount=71)

Umbria
Orvieto Cathedral (Orvieto) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36613156&postcount=30); Lower Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (Assisi) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38324138&postcount=84); Upper Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (Assisi) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38324158&postcount=85); Spoleto Cathedral (Spoleto) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38713380&postcount=94)

Latium
Santa Maria in Trastevere (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302264&postcount=2); Santa Prassede (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302370&postcount=6); Santa Maria della Vittoria (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36413924&postcount=16); Santa Maria del Popolo (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36460680&postcount=19); San Luigi dei Francesi (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36480444&postcount=23); Santa Maria Maggiore (Tuscania) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36503010&postcount=24); Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36682724&postcount=31); San Clemente (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36682770&postcount=32); San Pietro in Vincoli (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36682806&postcount=33); Chiesa del Gesù (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36769164&postcount=39); Anagni Cathedral (Anagni) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37162456&postcount=55); Sant'Ignazio di Loyola (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37162468&postcount=56); Santo Stefano Rotondo (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37239742&postcount=60); Santa Maria in Domnica (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37319358&postcount=63); Sant'Agostino (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37572170&postcount=70); Sant'Agnese fuori le mura (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38873980&postcount=95); Mausoleo di Santa Costanza (Rome) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38873992&postcount=96)

Abruzzo
Santa Maria di Collemaggio (L'Aquila) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36546844&postcount=27); Santa Maria delle Grotte (Fossa) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36592690&postcount=28); Oratorio di Bominaco (Bominaco) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36769146&postcount=38); San Bernardino (L'Aquila) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36766142&postcount=110)

Molise
San Giorgio Martire (Petrelle Tifernina) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38427966&postcount=88)

Campania
Sant'Angelo in Formis (Capua) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36302346&postcount=5); Naples Cathedral (Naples) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36536914&postcount=26); San Giovanni a Carbonara (Naples) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38098714&postcount=81); Monastero di Santa Chiara (Naples) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38324116&postcount=83); Casertavecchia Cathedral (Casertavecchia) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38374698&postcount=86); Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo (Anacapri) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39235488&postcount=103)

Calabria
Gerace Cathedral (Gerace) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37897438&postcount=78)

Apulia
Santa Maria del Casale (Brindisi) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37162446&postcount=54); Abbazia di Santa Maria di Cerrate (Lecce) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37450154&postcount=65); Basilica di Santa Croce (Lecce) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37625162&postcount=72); Bitonto Cathedral (Bitonto) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38428022&postcount=90)

Sardinia
Cagliari Cathedral (Cagliari) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36952888&postcount=47); Basilica della Ss. Trinità di Saccargia (Codrongianos) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37708178&postcount=74); Alghero Cathedral (Alghero) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39094138&postcount=99); Iglesia di San Francesco (Alghero) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39235454&postcount=102)

Sicily
Martorana (Palermo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36400072&postcount=12); Palatine Chapel (Palermo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36400088&postcount=13); Casa Professa/Chiesa del Gesù (Palermo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=36460714&postcount=20); Monreale Cathedral (Monreale) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37239822&postcount=62); Santa Maria della Catena (Palermo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37897368&postcount=77); Santa Caterina (Palermo) (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=38098630&postcount=79)


I hope you'll enjoy this thread

Santa Maria in Trastevere (Rome, Italy)

The Basilica of Our Lady's in Trastevere (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere) is a titular minor basilica, one of the oldest churches in Rome, perhaps the first in which mass was openly celebrated. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s AD.

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The façade

Interior

The present nave of this Romanesque church, rebuilt by Pope Innocent II (1138–1148) and rededicated to the Virgin Mary, preserves its original basilica plan and stands on the earlier foundations. The 22 granite columns with Ionic and Corinthian capitals that separate the nave from the aisles came from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, as did the lintel of the entrance door.

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Interior

Inside the church are a number of late 13th-century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini on the subject of the Life of the Virgin (1291) centering on a "Corontation of the Virgin" in the apse. Domenichino's octagonal ceiling painting, Assumption of the Virgin (1617) fits in the coffered ceiling setting that he designed.

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The mosaics

The fifth chapel to the left is the Avila Chapel designed by Antonio Gherardi. This, and his Chapel of S. Cecilia in San Carlo ai Catinari are two of the most architecturally inventive chapels of the late seventeenth century in Rome. The lower order of the chapel is fairly dark and employs Borromini-like forms. In the dome, there is an opening or oculus from which four putti emerge to carry a central tempietto, all of which frames a light-filled chamber above, illuminated by windows not visible from below.

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The Avila Chapel

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Santo Spirito (Florence, Italy)

The Basilica of St. Mary of the Holy Spirit (Santa Maria del Santo Spirito) is one of the main churches in Florence, Italy. Usually referred to simply as Santo Spirito, it is located in the Oltrarno quarter, facing the square with the same name. The building on the interior is one of the pre-eminent examples of Renaissance architecture.

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History

The current church was constructed over the pre-existing ruins of an Augustinian convent from the 13th century, destroyed by a fire in 1471. Filippo Brunelleschi began designs for the new building as early as 1428. After his death in 1446, the works were carried on by his followers Antonio Manetti, Giovanni da Gaiole, and Salvi d'Andrea; the latter was also responsible for the construction of the cupola.

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The Angel

Unlike S. Lorenzo, where Brunelleschi’s ideas were thwarted, here, his ideas were carried through with some degree of fidelity, at least in the ground plan and up to the level of the arcades.[1] The Latin cross plan is so designed to maximize the legibility of the grid. The contrast between nave and transept that caused such difficulty at S. Lorenzo was here also avoided. The side chapels, in the form of niches all the same size (forty in all), run along the entire perimeter of the space.

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The Nave

Brunelleschi's facade was never built and left blank. In 1489, a sacristy was built to the left of the building and a door was opened up in a chapel to make the connection to the church. Designed by Simone del Pollaiolo, it has an octagonal plan. A Baroque baldachin with polychrome marbles was added by Giovanni Battista Caccini and Gherardo Silvani) over the high altar, in 1601. The church remained undecorated until the 18th century, when the walls were plastered. The inner façade is by Salvi d'Andrea, and has still the original glass window with the Pentecost designed by Pietro Perugino. The bell tower (1503) was designed by Baccio d'Agnolo.

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Details

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Basilica di Aquileia (Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Aquileia (also called Aquilegia, Slovene Oglej) is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times.

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The Basilica

The Cathedral of Aquileia is one of the most important edifices of Christianity. It is a flat-roofed basilica erected by Patriarch Poppo in 1031 on the site of an earlier church, and rebuilt about 1379 in the Gothic style by Patriarch Marquad. The façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is connected by a portico to the Church of the Pagans, and the remains of the 5th century Baptistry. The interior has a nave and two aisles, with a noteworthy mosaic pavement from the 4th century.

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The Nave and the mosaic pavement

The wooden ceiling is from 1526, while the fresco decoration belongs to various ages: from the 4th century in the St. Peter's chapel of the apse area; from the 11th century in the apse itself; from the 12th century in the so-called "Crypt of the Frescoes", under the presbytery, with a cycle depicting the origins of Christianity in Aquileia and the history of St. Hermagoras, first bishop of the city. Next to the 11th century Romanesque Holy Sepulchre, at the beginning of the left aisle, is ths of different ages can be seen: the lowest is from a Roman villa of the age of Augustus; the middle one has a typical cocciopesto pavemente; the upper one, bearing blackening from the Attila's fire, has geometrical decorations. Externally, behind the 9th century campanile and the apse, is the Cemetery of the Fallen, where ten unnamed soldiers of World War I are buried. Saint Hermangoras is also buried there.

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Detail of mosaics

Ancient remains

The ancient buildings of Aquileia served as stone quarries for centuries, and no edifices of the Roman period remain above ground. Excavations have revealed one street and the north-west angle of the town walls, while the National Archaeological Museum (one of the most important museums of Ancient Rome in the world) contains over 2,000 inscriptions, statues and other antiquities, as well as glasses of local production and a numismatics collection. The site of Aquileia, believed to be the largest Roman city yet to be excavated, is inscribed on the World Heritage List.

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The Crypt

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Sant'Angelo in Formis (Capua, Italy)

A very unknown little jewel!

About 10 km north of Capua on Via Galatina, at the foot of Monte Tifata is Sant'Angelo in Formis. This Romanesque Basilica was built in 925 AD on the ruins of a large ancient temple dedicated to Diana, the protector of forests and the goddess of chastity. The church was finished under the supervision of the abbot Desiderius from the Abbey of Montecassino (20 km north).

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The facade of Sant' Angelo in Formis is graced with a delicate portico of five arches, upheld by four Corinthian columns that were probably taken from the original temple. Inside, the central nave is divided from its side aisles by 14 columns some granite and some marble. It is quite a hodge-podge of different elements. Some of the columns are red granite others are white marble, still there are others carved from green marble. The Italian churches have a history of reusing elements from earlier eras. Pieces from diverse origins were brought together here from the surrounding area. The white marble stones that make up the base of the bell tower were once part of the amphitheater in Capua Vetere.

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The Nave

Although it is one of the best examples of medieval ecclesiastical architecture in Campania, Sant' Angelo in Formis is even more important for its well preserved frescoes. These expressively depicted stories ore clearly influenced by Byzantine models. Both those done in the portico and on the walls within were finished in the second half of the 11th century. The life of Jesus is depicted above the arches in the central nave while on the back wall there is a chilling scene depicting the Last Judgement.

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The absidal frescoes

Behind the altar Christ can be seen giving his blessings. These paintings are amazingly colorful considering that they are nearly 1000 years old. Below Christ are the three Arch Angels. Some claim that the floor of the basilica is the original from the temple of Diana. However, it's probably that some of the elements in the floor may have come from the temple of Diana, but it is unlikely that the entire floor was that of the earlier temple.

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Details of the medieval frescoes

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Santa Prassede (Rome, Italy)

The Basilica of Saint Praxedes (Latin: Basilica Sanctae Praxedis, Italian: Basilica di Santa Prassede) is a titular minor Basilica in Rome, located near the major basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.The current Cardinal Priest of Titulus Sancta Praxedis is Paul Poupard.

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The mosaics

The most impressive element of the church, clearly, is the mosaic decorative program. Paschal hired a team of professional mosaicists to complete the work in the apse, the apsidal arch, and the triumphal arch. In the apse, Jesus is in the center, flanked by Sts. Peter and Paul who present Prassede and Pudenziana to God. On the far left is Paschal, with the squared halo of the living, presenting a model of the church as an offering to Jesus.

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The Nave and the absidal mosaics

Below runs an inscription of Paschal's, hoping that this offering will be sufficient to secure his place in heaven. On the apsidal arch are twelve men on each side, holding wreaths of victory, welcoming the souls into heaven. Above them are symbols of the four Gospel writers: Mark, the lion; Matthew, the man; Luke, the bull; and John, the eagle, as they surround a lamb on a throne, a symbol of Christ's eventual return to Earth.

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The San Zeno Chapel

Though those mosaics as well as those in the Saint Zeno Chapel, a funerary chapel Paschal built for his mother, Theodora, are the best-known aspects of the church, an intriguing and relatively hidden aspect are ancient frescoes. Ascending a spiral staircase, one enters a small room, covered in scaffolding. However, on the wall is a fresco cycle dating most likely from the 8th century. The frescoes depict probably the life-cycle of the name saint of the church, Prassede.

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The Crypt

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Collegiata di San Gimignano (Tuscany, Italy)

The Collegiata is the main church of San Gimignano, Tuscany, central Italy, situated in the Piazza del Duomo at the town's heart. It was once the Duomo (Cathedral), but since San Gimignano no longer has a bishop it has reverted to the status of a collegiate church.

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History

The first church on the site was begun in the 10th century. The present building was begun in the early 12th century and was consecrated by Pope Eugene III in 1148. It was altered and enlarged by Giuliano da Maiano between 1466 and 1468. The façade dates from 1239 and is remarkably plain.

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The Nave

The Romanesque interior is famous for its lavish frescoes, which almost entirely cover the walls. The arcades are of black and white striped marble. In the centre is a large fresco of St Sebastian by Benozzo Gozzoli (1465), commissioned after the plague had hit the town in 1464. A fresco cycle by Taddeo di Bartolo depicts the Last Judgement in gruesome detail. There are also cycles of the Old Testament by Bartolo di Fredi (1356–1367) and the New Testament, traditionally attributed to Barna da Siena (who supposedly died in a fall from the scaffolding while painting them), but possibly by Lippo Memmi (begun in 1333).

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The Santa Fina Chapel

The two main chapels are the Cappella di San Gimignano, with an altar by Benedetto da Maiano, and the Cappella di Santa Fina, designed by Giuliano da Maiano, with the sculpture by his brother Benedetto. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted the frescoes in the latter chapel. St Fina was born in San Gimignano in 1238, contracted an incurable disease when she was ten and spent the five years until her death lying on a board to increase her suffering before God. On her death the board was covered in flowers. The house where she supposedly lived and died still stands in the town.

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The frescoes

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Sant'Agostino (San Gimignano, Italy)

The Church of St. Augustine (Chiesa di Sant'Agostino) is the second largest church in San Gimignano, Italy, after the Collegiata. It is owned by the Augustinians.

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Sant'Agostino is an imposing 13th century building. The interior is a large hall dominated by the seventeen-panel fresco cycle on The Life of St Augustine around the high altar, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli between 1463 and 1467. The altarpiece is the Coronation of the Virgin by Piero del Pollaiuolo (1483). There are a number of other frescoes in the church. The Cappella di San Bartolo houses the remains of the eponymous saint (1228–1300), a lay Franciscan who died of leprosy. The magnificent altar in the chapel is by Benedetto da Maiano.

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The absidal frescoes

History

San Gimignano is a 14th-century town in Tuscany which has kept its mediaeval appearance unchanged. The city is encircled by ramparts bristling with fourteen tall towers of nobility, formerly seventy two in number, which have earned it the nickname San Gimignano of the Fine Towers. The church of Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano is a single-aisled hall church with three apsidal chapels and an open roof truss. It was built by the Augustinian canons between 1280 and 1298, and it represents a typical example of the Gothic architecture of the mendicant orders in central Italy. Benozzo Gozzoli, in collaboration with several assistants, produced here his main work, the decorations of the apsidal chapel of the church in 1464-65.

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Benozzo Gozzoli (1421-1497), Saint Augustine departing for Milan

As in Montefalco, the life of St Augustine is narrated as an ascent: the lowest register depicts the education, teachings and travels, the middle one his path to faith, and the lunettes the culmination of his journey through life. The vault symbolizes his ascent to heaven. The lavish framing of the picture fields by means of narrow gold borders and painted pilasters is an innovation in this form. The cycle depicts 17 scenes from the life of St Augustine. The pictures, which are arranged in three rows, use the traditional horizontal direction of reading, from the bottom left to the top right. The vaulting shows the four Evangelists on concentrically painted clouds, creating the impression of a circular vault.

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Benozzo Gozzoli (1421-1497), The School of Tagaste

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Basilica di San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Church or Basilica of San Vitale — styled an "ecclesiastical basilica" in the Roman Catholic Church, though it is not of architectural basilica form — is the most famous monument of Ravenna, Italy and is one of the most important examples of Byzantine Art and architecture in western Europe. The building is one of eight Ravenna structures inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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The church was begun by Bishop Ecclesius in 527, when Ravenna was under the rule of the Ostrogoths, and completed by the 27th Bishop of Ravenna, Maximian in 548 during the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. The architect of this church is unknown, but he was certainly among the best architects of his time. The church has an octagonal plan. The building combines Roman elements (the dome, shape of doorways, stepped towers) with Byzantine (polygonal apse, capitals, narrow bricks, etc). However, the church is most famous for its wealth of Byzantine mosaics, the largest and best preserved outside of Constantinople itself. The church is of extreme importance in Byzantine art, as it is the only major church from the period of Emperor Justinian to survive virtually intact to the present day; furthermore, it is thought to reflect the design of the Byzantine Imperial Palace Audience Chamber, of which nothing at all survives. According to legend, the church was erected on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Vitalis. However, there is some confusion as to whether this is the Saint Vitalis of Milan, or the Saint Vitale whose body was discovered together with that of Saint Agricola, by Saint Ambrose in Bologna in 393. The construction of the church was sponsored by a Greek banker, Iulianus Argentarius, of whom very little is known, except that he also sponsored the construction of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe at around the same time. The final cost amounted to 26,000 gold pieces. The true sponsor may have been the Byzantine Emperor, who used such church construction projects as propaganda and as a way of speeding the incorporation of new territory into the Empire.

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Interior

The central section is surrounded by two superposed ambulatories. The upper one, the matrimoneum, was reserved for married women. A series of mosaics in the lunettes above the triforia, depict sacrifices from the Old Testament : the story of Abraham and Melchizedek, and the Sacrifice of Isaac; the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, Jeremiah and Isaiah, representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the story of Abel and Cain. A pair of angels, holding a medallion with a cross, crowns each lunette. On the side walls the corners, next to the mullioned windows, have mosaics of the Four Evangelists, under their symbols (angel, lion, bull and eagle), and dressed in white. Especially the portrayal of the lion is remarkable in its feral ferocity. The cross-ribbed vault in the presbytery is richly ornamented with mosaic festoons of leaves, fruit and flowers, converging on a crown encircling the Lamb of God. The crown is supported by four angels, and every surface is covered with a profusion of flowers, stars, birds and animals, including many peacocks. Above the arch, on both sides, two angels hold a disc and beside them a representation of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They symbolize the human race (Jerusalem representing the Jews, and Bethlehem the Gentiles). All these mosaics are executed in the Hellenistic-Roman tradition : lively and imaginative, with rich colours and a certain perspective, and with a vivid depiction of the landscape, plants and birds. They were finished when Ravenna was still under Gothic rule. The apse is flanked by two chapels, the prothesis and the diaconicon, typical for Byzantine architecture. Inside, the intrados of the great triumphal arch is decorated with fifteen mosaic medallions, depicting Jesus Christ, the twelve Apostles and Saint Gervasius and Saint Protasius, the sons of Saint Vitale.

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The absidal mosaics

The theophany was began in 525 under bishop Ecclesius. It has a great gold fascia with twining flowers, birds, and horns of plenty. Jesus Christ appears, seated on a blue globe in the summit of the vault, robed in purple, with his right hand offering the martyr's crown to Saint Vitale. On the left, Bishop Ecclesius offers a model of the church. At the foot of the apse side walls are two famous mosaic panels, executed in 548. On the left is a mosaic depicting the Emperor Justinian, clad in purple with a golden halo, standing next to court officials, Bishop Maximian, praetorian guards and deacons. The halo around his head gives him the same aspect as Christ in the dome of the apse. Justinian himself stands in the middle, with soldiers on his left and clergy on this right, emphasizing that Justinian is the leader of both church and state of his empire. He also holds a paten and is shown with a 3 day beard to show that too busy to shave since he is performing his duties as emperor. The gold background of the mosaic shows that Justinian and his entourage are inside the church and gives off an otherworldly,spiritual vibe. The figures are placed in a V shape; Justinian is placed in the front and in the middle to show his importance with Bishop Maximian on his left and lesser individuals being placed behind them. This placement can be seen through the overlapping feet of the individuals present in the mosaic. On the right side is Empress Theodora solemn and formal, with golden halo, crown and jewels, and a train of court ladies. She is almost depicted as a goddess. As opposed to the V formation of the figures in the Justinian mosaic, the mosaic with Empress Theodora shows the figures moving from left to right into the church. Theodora is seen holding the wine. These panels are almost the only surviving examples of Byzantine secular mosaic art, and offer a glimpse into the glory, splendor and pomp of the Byzantine world. The Church of San Vitale inspired the design of the church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, then was the model used by Charlemagne for his Palatine Chapel in Aachen in 805, and centuries later its dome was the inspiration for Filippo Brunelleschi in the design for the dome of the Duomo of Florence.

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The Emperor Justinian (detail)

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Collegiata di Castiglione Olona (Italy)

Castiglione Olona is a little town and comune in the province of Varese, in Lombardy, North Italy.

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Castiglione Olona is famous in Italy thanks to the Cardinale Branda Castiglioni (1350-1443), important person of the european culture in his time. Due to him Castiglione Olona, characterized by a deep-rooted history in the roman age, became precious and unique by means of palaces, churches and incomparable works of art, like the Masolino da Panicale's (1383-1440) frescoes. In the village the spirit of Cardinale Branda who founded a public and free school "to dispel the ignorance" is still living.

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The Nave

The Collegiata, consacred on 25 March 1425, was built by Alberto, Giovanni and Pietro Solari architects in Milan. It preserves the stories of the Virgin by Masolino da Panicale and those of Saint Stefano and Lorenzo by Vecchietta and Paolo Schiavo. Near the Collegiata, inside the north tower of the old fortress, the stories of Saint John the Baptist were frescoed by Masolino in 1435. The Church of the Most Holy Body of Christ was built in 1437, according to Brunelleschi's architecture. It offers the researchers grounds of great interest. On the front there are the statues of Saints Antony and Cristoforo. The Cardinal's Palace includes the Saint Martin Chapel frescoed by "il Vecchietta" (1437), the Cardinal's room and the Cardinal's study with a fresco by Masolino and "il Vecchietta".

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The Masolino frescoes

Among the artists who worked in service of Cardinal Branda Castiglioni, a true patron and creator of the complex of monuments which made Castiglione Olona known as an “Island of Tuscany in Lombardy”, the most famous is certainly Masolino. Tommaso of Cristofano Fini, known as Masolino, was born in 1393 in Panicale, near Florence. From 1427 to 1435 the painter, already famous, made himself available to Cardinal Branda and he realised some of his masterpieces: the frescoes of the St. Catherine Chapel in the church of St. Clement in Rome and those of the Collegiate Church and of the Baptistery in Castiglione Olona. He probably died between 1435 and 1440.

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The Masolino frescoes

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Battistero di Castiglione Olona (Italy)

Castiglione Olona is a little town and comune in the province of Varese, in Lombardy, North Italy.

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The Baptistery is on the same plane at the top of the hill where the Collegiata stands. It derives from an old red brick tower whose loopholes were transformed into windows. Presumably the Baptistery was born as a gentilitial chapel for the salvation of the soul. It's the common opinion of the art critics that the painting in fresco of the Baptistery proceeded that of the Collegiata's apse basin. The documents regarding the decoration of the Collegiata and the Baptistery are rather scarce but not inexistent. As a matter of fact, the date 1435 appears on the intrados of the arch between the presbytery and the square room.

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The Baptistery

It also appears in the Baptistery's frescoes. Also, the signiture "Masolinus de Florentia pinxit" is legible in the scene of the Nativity, in the Collegiata's apse. As regards the Baptistery's frescoes, the assistants of Masolino gave a secondary contribution. Presumably only "The Decollation" was made by Paolo Schiavo or Vecchietta entirely. Masolino is a transition artist between the courteous art and humanistic arts. He elaborates the pictorial elements of the courteous style according to humanistic criteria. The courteous painting represents the space as a symbolic, ethical and moral dimension. The XVth century's painters had no pedagogical intention of explaining what is good and what is evil. Masolino still had this didactic intention. This turns out from his use of the perspective, which is not geometrical but only evocative. The Baptistery preserves Saint John the Baptist's stories, frescoed by Masolino da Panicale in 1435. Here is a detail of Christ's baptism. An unreal light descends over the clear and rough mountains with few little trees and over the clear green river. The delicate waves of the river emulate a sincere freshness. The stream of water has a gothic refinement.

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The Masolino frescoes

The light diffuses everywhere sovereignty and calm without shadows. In this picture Masolino gives an example of his own art that makes use of serene representations absolutely free of violence. On the south internal wall of the Baptistery, Masolino concentrates three different events in a single one. In this fresco the following scenes are recognizable: "Herod banquet" (left), "Salome' presents the Baptist's head to Herodiade" (right) and "The burying of Baptist" (center). They are physically different but psychologically related one to the other. The spatial depth of the scene is quite manifold and empirical. Some courteous elements and a particular attention to the representation of faces enrich the scene. The dance of Salome' was often present in the XIIIth century's tales. Due to ethical reasons, Salome' has already danced in this scene . The portico on the right of the "Banquet" is an example of the Masolino's representation of space. Specifically, he applies the linear perspective criteria with a strictly personal interpretation.

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The Masolino frescoes

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Martorana Church (Palermo, Sicily, Italy)

La Martorana, also known as Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (Saint Mary of the Admiral), is a church in Palermo (Sicily, Italy). The church is annexed to the next-door church of San Cataldo and overlooks the Piazza Bellini in central Palermo.

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The original church was built in the form of a compact cross-in-square ("Greek cross plan"), a common south Italian and Sicilian variation on the standard middle Byzantine church type. The three apses in the east adjoin directly on the naos, instead of being separated by an additional bay, as was usual in contemporary Byzantine architecture in the Balkans and Asia Minor. Certain elements of the original church, in particular its exterior decoration, show the influence of Islamic architecture on the culture of Norman Sicily. A frieze bearing a dedicatory inscription runs along the top of the exterior walls; although its text is in Greek, its architectural form references the Islamic architecture of north Africa.

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The Nave

Interior

The church is renowned for its spectacular interior, which is dominated by a series of 12th century mosaics executed by Byzantine craftsmen. The mosaics show many iconographic and formal similarities to the roughly contemporary programs in the Cappella Palatina and in Cefalù Cathedral, although they were probably executed by a distinct atelier. The walls display two mosaics taken from the original Norman façade, depicting King Roger II, George of Antioch's lord, receiving the crown of Sicily from Jesus, and, on the northern side of the aisle, George himself, at the feet of the Virgin. The depiction of Roger was highly significant in terms of its iconography. In Western Christian tradition, kings were customarily crowned by the Pope or his representatives; however, Roger is shown in Byzantine dress being crowned by God himself.

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The Ceiling

Roger was renowned for presenting himself as an emperor during his reign, being addressed as basileus ("emperor" in Greek). The mosaic of the crowning of Roger carries an inscription in a blend of Latin and Greek (Rogerios Rex, the former word in Greek, the latter in Latin). The nave dome is occupied by the traditional Greek image of Christ Pantokrator surrounded by the archangels St Michael, St Gabriel, St Raphael and St Uriel. The register below depicts the eight prophets of the Old Testament and, in the pendentives, the four evangelists of the New Testament. The nave vault depicts the Nativity and the Death of the Virgin. The newer part of the church is decorated with later frescoes of comparatively little artistic significance. The frescoes in the middle part of the walls are from the 18th century, attributed to Guglielmo Borremans.

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The mosaics

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The Palatine Chapel (Palermo, Sicily, Italy)

The Palatine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Palatina) is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily situated on the ground floor at the center of the Palazzo Reale in Palermo.

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History

The chapel was commissioned by Roger II of Sicily in 1132 to be built upon an older chapel (now the crypt) constructed around 1080. It took eight years to build and many more to decorate with mosaics and fine art. The sanctuary, dedicated to Saint Peter, is reminiscent of a domed basilica. It has three apses, as is usual in Byzantine architecture, with six pointed arches (three on each side of the central nave) resting on recycled classical columns. The mosaics of the Palatine Chapel are of unparalleled elegance as concerns elongated proportions and streaming draperies of figures. They are also noted for subtle modulations of colour and luminance. The oldest are probably those covering the ceiling, the drum, and the dome.

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The Nave

The shimmering mosaics of the transept, presumably dating from the 1140s and attributed to Byzantine artists, illustrate scenes from the Acts of the Apostles. Every composition is set within an ornamental frame, not dissimilar to that used in contemporaneous mosaic icons. The rest of mosaics, alternatively dated to the 1160s or the 1170s, is executed in a cruder manner and feature Latin (rather than Greek) inscriptions. Probably a work of local craftsmen, these pieces are more narrative and illustrative than transcendental. A few mosaics have a secular character and represent oriental flora and fauna. This may be the only substantial piece of secular Byzantine mosaic extant today.

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The Cupola

The chapel combines harmoniously a variety of styles: the Norman architecture and door decor, the Arabic arches and scripts adorning the roof, the Byzantine dome and mosaics. For instance, clusters of four eight-pointed stars, typical for Muslim design, are arranged on the ceiling so as to form a Christian cross. Other remarkable features of the chapel include the Carolingian throne, a low stage for royal receptions, and a balcony which allowed the king to view religious processions from above. In addition, the muqarnas ceiling is spectacular. The hundreds of facets were painted, notably with many purely ornamental vegetal and zoomorphic designs but also with scenes of daily life and many subjects that have not yet been explained. Stylistically influenced by Iraqi 'Abbasid art, these paintings are innovative in their more spatially aware representation of personages and of animals.

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The mosaics

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southern Churches are absolutely stunning

southern Churches are absolutely stunning

Yes, expecially the interior :)

Santa Maria della Vittoria (Rome, Italy)

Santa Maria della Vittoria (St. Mary of the Victory) is a small baroque Basilica church in Rome, on Via XX Settembre.

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History

The church was begun in 1605 as a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul for the Discalced Carmelites. After the Catholic victory at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, which reversed the Reformation in Bohemia, the church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary. (Turkish standards captured at the 1683 siege of Vienna hang in the church, as part of this victorious theme). The order itself funded the building work until the discovery in the excavations of the Borghese Hermaphroditus. Scipione Borghese appropriated this sculpture but in return (and to make up for his loss of influence due to the death of his uncle and patron) funded the rest of work on the facade and granted the order his architect Giovanni Battista Soria. These grants only came into effect in 1624 however, though work was completed two years later.

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The Nave and the Ceiling

Architectural

The church is the only structure designed and completed by the early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno, though the interior suffered a fire in 1833 and required restoration. Its façade, however, was erected by Soria during Maderno's lifetime, 1624–1626, showing the unmistakable influence of Maderno's Santa Susanna nearby. Its interior has a single wide nave under a low segmental vault, with three interconnecting side chapels behind arches separated by colossal corinthian pilasters with gilded capitals that support an enriched entablature. Contrasting marble revetments are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels and putti in full relief. The interior was sequentially enriched after Maderno's death; its vault was frescoed in 1675 with triumphant themes within shaped compartments with feigned frames: The Virgin Mary Triumphing over Heresy and Fall of the Rebel Angels executed by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini.

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Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa (Cornaro Chapel)

Sculptural

The masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the altar, is Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Scipione's favored sculptor, Bernini. The statues depict a moment described by Saint Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid vision of an angel piercing her heart with a golden shaft, causing her both immense joy and pain. The flowing robes and contorted posture abandon classical restraint and repose to depict a more passionate, almost voluptous trance. Other sculptural detail abounds: The Dream of Joseph (left transept, Domenico Guidi, flanked by relief panels by Pierre Etienne Monnot) and the funeral monument to Berlinghiero Cardinal Gessi. There are paintings by Guercino, Nicolas Lorrain, and Domenichino.

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The Nave (opposite side)

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Brixen/Bressanone Cathedral (Bressanone, Italy)

Brixen (Italian: Bressanone) is a town in the province of Bolzano-Bozen in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

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The Cathedral

The Cathedral (10th century), was rebuilt in the 13th century and again in 1745-1754 along Baroque lines. The ceiling of the nave has a large fresco by Paul Troger portraying the Adoration of the Lamb.

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The baroque Nave

The Cloister

Cloister's frescos represent one of the highest examples of Tirolo's paintings. The first cloister was built around 1200 as part of the old cathedral complex with a direct access passageway to the main building. The small pillars in the colonnade originate from this first building phase and were embellished with frescoes, while the groined vault which is still visible was built around 1370. The ground plan of the cloister is almost square with a small, bright garden in the inner courtyard. The frescoes which decorate the cloister can now be admired once again in their entirety following years of restoration work. They originate from the early to late Gothic period (14th to 16th centuries) and were painted by various masters, illustrating for the most part passages in the Bible to enable even those who cannot read or write to understand them.

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The Cloister and the gothic frescoes

Various donors sponsored the painting of the individual arcades and the work was carried out by numerous artists. They included Jakob von Seckau, Ruprecht Potsch and Erasmus von Bruneck to name but a few of the most notable. A large number originate from the brush of the master Leonhard von Brixen and his school, for example the frescoes in the 14th and 15th arcades. They have been recently restored and depict scenes from the Old Testament as well as the "seven joys of Our Lady".The names of wealthy canons appear as donors, who often had themselves featured in the paintings.

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Detail of the Cloister decoration

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Yes, expecially the interior :)

yes, they are all golden and shining and exotic and mystic. :)

Santa Maria del Popolo (Rome, Italy)

Santa Maria del Popolo is a notable Augustinian church located in Rome. It stands to the north side of the Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares of the city, between the ancient Porta Flaminia (one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls and the starting point of the Via Flaminia, the road to Ariminum (modern Rimini) and the most important route to the north of Ancient Rome) and the Pincio park.

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In 1099, a chapel was built by Pope Paschal II to Our Lady, over a tomb of the Domitia family. Tradition has it that the site was haunted by Nero's ghost or demons in the form of black crows; therefore the pope chopped down the walnut tree sheltering the crows and built a church in its place. The name del Popolo ("of the people") probably derives from its funding by the people of Rome, but some sources say it comes from the Latin word populus, meaning "poplar" and referring to a tree located nearby. The chapel became a church by will of Pope Gregory IX, and given to the Augustinians, who still oversee the church, in the first half of 13th century.

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The Nave

Dome of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo.Santa Maria del Popolo was reconstructed by Baccio Pontelli and Andrea Bregno in 1472-1477, commissioned by the association of the Lombards of Rome, creating an excellent example of Italian Renaissance architecture. In 1655-60 the facade was modified by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who was asked by Pope Alexander VII to update the Renaissance church to a more modern Baroque style.

The Cerasi Chapel and others artworks

The church contains the Cerasi Chapel canvases of Caravaggio (Crucifixion of St. Peter and Conversion on the Way to Damascus) and an Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci, a frescoes by Pinturicchio, sculptures by Andrea Bregno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Habakkuk and the Angel and Daniel and the Lion).

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The Caravaggio Masterpieces (Cerasi Chapel)

The Chigi Chapel

The Chigi Chapel, the private chapel of banker Agostino Chigi, was designed by Raffaello Sanzio. The dome is decorated with Raphael's mosaics Creation of the World. After Bernini's intervention, the church became a favourite site of burials of rich people of the city. Among the others, the banker Agostino Chigi and the Cardinal Savo Millini have their tombs here. Hyacinthe Thiandoum held as Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Mariae de Populo until his death in 2004. On 24 March 2006, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Stanisław Dziwisz to the position.

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The Chigi Chapel

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Casa Professa/Chiesa del Gesù (Palermo, Italy)

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The "Chiesa del Gesù" (Church of Jesus), also known as Casa Professa is Baroque masterpiece located in Palermo's Alberghieria quarter near the Quattro Canti. The Jesuits built the original church here, the Order's first one in Palermo, between 1564 and 1578. Afterwards, the Church was enlarged with the addition of side chapels and further decorated in the Baroque manner.

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The Nave

When it was finally completed in 1634, the Church was Palermo's most ornate Baroque church, and still is. Interestingly enough, a great part of the work here was done by Jesuit priests themselves and not by commissioned artists. The Baroque was the architectural embodiment of the Counter Reformation's ideals, its answer to the simplicity stressed in most Protestant places of worship. Its ornate stone inlay (intarsia) is the church's most distinguishing artistic feature.

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The ceiling

Casa Professa was damaged during World War II, but was superbly restored following that conflict. The interior has a Latin cross plan with a nave and two aisles, characterized by a particularly rich decoration of marbles, tarsias and stuccoes, especially in the St. Anne chapel. At the right is the Casa Professa, with a 1685 portal and a precious 18th century cloister. The Church of the Jesus is home to the Municipal Library, placede here in 1775.

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Details

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Duomo di Siena (Siena, Italy)

Siena's Cathedrale di Santa Maria, better known as the Duomo, is a gleaming marble treasury of Gothic art from the 13th and 14th centuries. Siena's Duomo was built between 1215 and 1263 and designed in part by Gothic master Nicola Pisano. His son, Giovanni, drew up the plans for the lower half of the facade, begun in 1285. The facade's upper half was added in the 14th century.

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Interior

The interior of Siena's Duomo is a rather dizzying sight, with its black-and-white striped pillars and ornate decoration on every surface. There is much to see throughout, including a number of important art masterpieces. The nave arcades, with rest on pillars with engaged columns of black and white marble, are very tall with round arches. There is no triforium. The walls of the clerestory have black-and-white stripes to match the pillars. Some of the nave capitals, which feature phytomorphic sculptures, are though to have been sculpted by Giovanni Pisano while he worked on the pulpit in the 1260s. The cornice that runs the length of the nave is decorated with busts of popes made in the workshop of Giovanni di Stefano beginning in 1495. Only four or five terracotta molds were used to make the busts, so many of them are identical. Below are 36 busts of Roman and Byzantine emperors from Constantine to Theodosius. The north transept is home to a bronze statue by Donatello of an emaciated St. John the Baptist, a companion piece to his Mary Magdalene in Florence. In the south transept is the Chigi Chapel, outside of which are paintings of St. Jerome and St. Mary Magdalene by Bernini. The Renaissance high altar is flanked by angels by Beccafumi.

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Interior

Marble Pavement

The celebrated pavement of Siena Cathedral features 59 etched and inlaid marble panels created from 1372 to 1547. The subjects include sibyls, scenes from Sienese history, and biblical scenes. Several important Sienese artists contributed to the project, including Domenico di Bartolo, Matteo di Giovanni, Pinturicchio, and especially Beccafumi, who designed 35 scenes from 1517 to 1547. The Hill of Virtue by Pinturicchio is the fourth scene from the back of the nave. The panels in the nave and aisles are usually on display (although roped off for protection) but the those in the transepts and apse are kept under protective cover, except from August 23 to October 3 during the Palio. Most of these are by Beccafumi. An important panel in the north transept is Matteo di Giovanni's Massacre of the Innocents (1481). The painter was worryingly preoccupied with this theme - his disturbing paintings can be seen in the Palazzo Pubblico and Santa Maria dei Servi.

Pisano Pulpit

A major highlight of the interior is the octagonal Gothic pulpit by Nicola Pisano (1265-68), assisted by his son Giovanni and others. It was created just a few years after Nicola's pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery (1260) and represents a further maturing of his artistic style. Four of the eight outer columns rest on lions, while the base of the central column is populated by the personified liberal arts. The seven marble panels depict the life of Christ in crowded scenes full of movement and life.

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The pulpit (on the left side) and the marble pavement

Piccolomini Library

About halfway down the nave on the left is the entrance to the Libreria Piccolomini, famed for its beautifully preserved Renaissance frescoes. The library was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena (later Pope Pius III), to honor the memory and book collection of his maternal uncle Enea (Aeneas) Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II. The library was constructed in about 1492, inspired in part by the opening of the Vatican Library under Pope Sixtus IV in 1475. The ornate marble entrance in the north aisle of the cathedral was sculpted by Lorenzo di Mariano (a.k.a. Marrina). The lunettes bear the coats of arms of Cardinal Francesco and Pius II. Above the portal is a large fresco by Pinturicchio (1505) depicting the coronation of Pius III. The walls of the library are beautifully decorated with ten frescoes by Pinturicchio (1502-07) depicting the eventful life of Pope Pius II. A young Raphael may have been among the pupils who assisted. Each scene is labeled with a Latin inscription, taken from the pope's biography by the humanist writer Giovanni Antonio Campano. The story begins at the end of the room next to the right-hand window, then proceeds clockwise around the room. The impressive vault of the library, also painted by Pinturicchio (c.1502), is ornately decorated with grotesques, scenes from classical mythology, and a variety of putti, satyrs, nymphs and tritons. The three large squares in the center depict the Rape of Proserpine, the Piccolomini coat of arms, and Diana and Endymion. The walls are lined with display cases carved by Antonio Barili in 1495-96 and filled with an important collection of 30 richly illustrated Renaissance choir books from 1465 to 1515. In the center of the room is an elegant sculptural group of the Three Graces, an ancient Roman copy of a Hellenistic design bought in Rome in 1502 by Cardinal Todeschini to decorate the library. Frequently copied in the Renaissance era, it was used as a model by Pinturicchio, Raphael and Canova. The marble base was sculpted by Giovanni di Stefano.

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The Piccolominy Library

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Battistero di Siena (Siena, Italy)

Unlike Florence or Pisa, Siena did not build a separate baptistry. The baptistry is located underneath the eastern bays of the choir of the Duomo.

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Interior

The construction of the interior was largely performed under Camaino di Crescentino and was completed about 1325 [3]. It is rectangular in shape, divided in three aisles. The frescoes on the vaults were painted by Lorenzo di Pietro (also called "Vecchietta") between 1447 and 1450. They represent the Articles of Faith, Prophets and Sibyls. Unfortunately, these valuable frescoes were repainted at the end of the 19th c. He also painted two scenes on the wall of the apse: Flagellation and Road to Calvary. Lichele di Matteo da Bologna painted in 1477 the frescoes on the vault of the apse.

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Interior

Baptismal font at the baptistry.The hexagonal baptismal font with bas-reliefs and gilded brass figures by Donatello, Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia and other 15th-century sculptors is the greatest art treasure in the baptistry. The panels represent the Life of John the Baptist, and include:

"Annunciation to Zacharias by Jacopo della Quercia (1428-1429)
"Birth of John the Baptist by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
"Baptist Preaching" by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
"Baptism of Christ" by Ghiberti (1427)
"Arrest of John the Baptist" by Ghiberti and Giuliano di Ser Andrea
"Herod's Banquet" by Donatello (1427)

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The Ceiling

These panels are flanked on the corners by six figures, two by Donatello (Faith and Hope) in 1429; three by Giovanni di Turino ("Justice", "Charity" and "Providence", 1431); "Fortitude" is by Goro di Ser Neroccio (1431).

The marble shrine on the font was designed by Jacopo della Quercia between 1427 and 1429. The five Prophets in the niches and the marble statuette of John the Baptist at the top are equally by his hand. Two of the bronze angels are by Donatello, three by Giovanni di Turino (the sixth is by an unknown artist).

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Trittico: Madonna e Santi

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San Luigi dei Francesi (Rome, Italy)

San Luigi dei Francesi is a church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona.

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The church was designed by Giacomo della Porta and built by Domenico Fontana between 1518 and 1589: the works could be completed through the personal intervention of Catherine de' Medici, who donated it some possessions in the area. It is the national French church of Rome and actually entitled to the Virgin Mary, to St. Dionigi Areopagita and St. Louis IX, king of France. The French character is evident since the facade itself, which has several statues recalling national history: these include Charlemagne, St. Louis, St. Clothilde and St. Jeanne of Valois. The interior also has frescoes telling the stories of St. Louis (by Charles-Joseph Natoire), St. Dennis and Clovis.

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The Nave

The church was chosen as the place of sepulture for the higher prelates and members of the French community of Rome: these include the tomb of Pauline de Beaumont, died by consumption in Rome in 1805, erected by her lover Chateaubriand, the classic liberal economist Frédéric Bastiat and that of Cardinal de Bernis, ambassador in Rome for Louis XV and Louis XVI. Domenichino painted here one of his masterworks, the frescoes portraying the Histories of Saint Cecilia. Other artists who worked in the decoration of San Luigi dei Francesi include Cavalier D'Arpino, Francesco Bassano il Giovanni, Muziano, Giovanni Baglione, Siciolante da Sermoneta, Jacopino del Conte, Tibaldi and Antoine Derizet.

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The Contarelli Chapel

Contarelli Chapel

The church's most famous item is however the cycle of paintings in the Contarelli Chapel, painted by the Baroque master Caravaggio in 1599-1600 about the life of St. Matthew. This include the three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of St Matthew, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew. The church, together with the other French churches in Rome, is governed by an "Administrative deputy" named by the French ambassador at the Holy See. The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe is André Vingt-Trois. Adiacent to the church is the late-Baroque San Luigi dei Francesi Palace. It was built in 1709-1716 as a "recovery for the French religious community and the pilgrims without resources". Its porch has a bust of Christ whose face is traditionally identified as Cesare Borgia's one. The interior houses a gallery with the portraits of the French kings and a notable Music Hall.

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The Calling of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)

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Santa Maria Maggiore (Tuscania, Italy)

Tuscania is a town and comune in the province of Viterbo, Latium Region, Italy.

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Tuscania is situated at the edge of the Viterbo area of Maremma, not far from the sea and the lake of Bolsena. This ancient and flourishing Etruscan centre is a town steeped in more than three thousand years of history. More info here (http://www.italy-weekly-rentals.com/webpages/accessori/UPPERLATIUM/TUSCANIA.htm).

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The Nave

A small town completely encircled by massive cyclopic walls with high towers, full of imposing churches, palaces and regular streets with ancient mansions and shops, manifestly a very rich place since a remote past, Tuscania was:
- a powerful Etruscan town from the VIII cent. B.C., flourishing in the IV and III centuries, then
- Roman town from the III cent. B.C.,
- Medieval center and important diocese with center in the Episcopalian palace on the S.Pietro's hill, from VI to XII century.
- Free Common in the XII and XIV centuries.

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Details

Santa Maria Maggiore

The Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built in the Lombard-Romanesque style, sits atop of a pre-existing pagan temple and was constructed during the 8th century and later enhanced and modified in the 12th-13th century. With three decorated doors, the interior of the church is made up of three central isles, a gothic frescoed ciborium, a large octagonal font from the 13th century, as well as frescoes dating from that same period and on into the 14th century.

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The absidal frescoes

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Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio (Milan, Italy)

The Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio is a church in Milan, northern Italy, for many years an important centre for pilgrims on their journey to Rome or the Holy Land, because it was the site of the tomb of the Three Magi or Three Kings. Probably founded in the 4th-5th centuries, its name refers to Eustorgius I (Eustorgio, Eustorgios), a bishop of Milan. The translation of the relics of the Magi to Milan is attributed to him.

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The church was later rebuilt in Romanesque style. In the 12th century, when Milan was sacked by Frederick Barbarossa, the relics of the Magi were appropriated and subsequently taken to Cologne. It was only in 1903/4 that fragments of the bones and garments were sent back to Sant'Eustorgio's. Nowadays they are in the Three Kings altar nearby the empty Three Kings sarcophagus. Still today, in memory of the Three Kings, the bell tower is surmounted by a star instead of the traditional cross. From the 13th century the church was the main Milanese seat of the Dominican Order, who promoted its rebuilding. The current façade is a 19th century reconstruction. The interior has a nave and two aisles, covered with groin vaults.

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The abside

Of the Romanesque church only parts of the apse remain, while of the original Early Christian building, remains have been excavated also under the apse. To the right side of the nave, the church has chapels commissioned from the 14th century onwards by the main families of the city. The first from the entrance is of the 15th century and has a Renaissance sepulchre and a triptych by Ambrogio Bergognone. The three others are more ancient, having frescoes of the Giotto school and tombs of members of the Visconti family. The high altar is an imposing marble polyptych of the early 15th century, while a similar work is in the right transept, next to the Early Christian sarcophagus of the Magi. Also noteworthy are a Crucifixion on a table by a Venetian artist of the 13th century and St. Ambrose Defeating Arius by Ambrogio Figino of the late 16th century.

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Cappella Portinari

Cappella Portinari

From the false crypt our route leads to the Portinari Chapel, true jewell of early Renaissance art in Milan. The Portinari Chapel was commissioned by the rich Florentine banker Pigello di Folco Portinari (1421 - 1468) as his and his family burial chapel. Pigello Portinari was a rich branch manager of the Medici bank in Milan during Piero di Cosimo de Medici time (1416 - 1469). His burial chapel Pigello Portinari dedicated to Saint Peter Martyr probably under influence of strong devotion of his patron, Piero di Cosimo de Medici, to that saint. The chapel was built between 1462-68 in early Florentine Renaissance style, which was applied for first time in Florence by Filippo Bruneleschi 20 years earlier.The capel has frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa and a marble sepulchre by Giovanni di Balduccio, a 14th century pupil of Giovanni Pisano.

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Cappella Torelli (vault)

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Naples Cathedral (Italy)

The Cathedral of Naples (or Duomo) is the main church of Naples, southern Italy. It is dedicated to San Gennaro (St. Januarius), the city's patron.

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The church houses a vial of the Saint's blood that is brought out twice a year, on the first Saturday in May and 19 September, and usually liquefies. According to legend if the blood should fail to liquefy, then something bad will happen to Naples. The church was commissioned by the King Charles I of Anjou. Construction continued during the reign of his successor, Charles II (1285-1309) and was completed in the early 14th century under Robert of Anjou. It was built on the foundations of two palaeo-Christian basilicas, whose traces can still be clearly seen. Underneath of the church, excavations have revealed Greek and Roman artifacts.

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The Nave

Bust of St. Januarius, Cathedral of Naples. The main attraction of the interior is the Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius, with frescoes by Domenichino and Giovanni Lanfranco, altarpieces by Domenichino, Massimo Stanzione, Jusepe Ribera, the rich high altar by Francesco Solimena, the bronze railing by Cosimo Fanzago and other artworks, including a reliquiary by 14th century French masters.

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Cappella Minutolo

Other artworks include an Assumption by Pietro Perugino, canvasses by Luca Giordano and the palaeo-christian baptistery, with mosaics from the 4th century. The main chapel is a restoration of the 18th century, with a Baroque relief by Pietro Bracci. The Minutolo Chapel, mentioned in Boccaccio's Decameron, has 14th century frescoes. The crypt is by the Lombard Tommaso Malvito. The façade was reworked by Enrico Alvino in the late 19th century, but retains the 15th century portal, including some sculptures by Tino da Camaino.

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The Crypt

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Santa Maria di Collemaggio (L'Aquila, Italy)

Santa Maria di Collemaggio is a large medieval church in L'Aquila, celebrated not only for its architecture, but also as the site of the original Papal Jubilee, a penitential observation devised by Pope Celestine V, who is buried here. The church, which therefore ranks as a basilica because of its importance in religious history, sits in isolation at the end of a long rectangular sward of grass at the SW edge of town.

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The church is a masterpiece of Abruzzese Romanesque and Gothic architecture and one of the chief sights of L'Aquila. The striking jewel-box effect of the exterior is due to a pattern of blocks of alternating pink and white stone; the interior is massive and austere. Outbuildings include a colonnaded cloister, with the central fountain typical of many other similar Italian cloisters, and the former monastic refectory. The elegant Romanesque façade has the appearance of a wall, with a central door, embellished in the 15th century, and two smaller flanking doors; each door is a round arch set into a series of archivolts, and each is surmounted by a rose window. The main decoration of the façade, however, consists in the use of contrasting stone arranged in a sort of tapestry of cruciform elements. The façade is unfinished, lacking any customary crowning gables or other superstructures, and the addition of an octagonal belfry, now reduced to a stub after it had to be demolished after an earthquake, has made it asymmetrical.

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The façade

The three portals and three rose-windows are all different. The central door was significantly reworked in the 15th century, decorated with blank niches arranged in two rows over a base composed of square panels carved with floral motifs. A rear view of the church is much less successful, revealing an awkward congeries of various extensions over the centuries, mostly of the Gothic period. The interior follows the standard plan of a nave and two side aisles each one divided from it by a row of columns, from which arches support a tall wooden ceiling. The floor of the nave is in the same red and white stone as the façade. A major restoration, aiming to return the church to its original Romanesque appearance by removing accretions over the centuries, was completed in 1972. The church's principal monument, in the right aisle next to the choir, is the tomb of Celestine V. Commissioned by a guild of wool workers in 1517, it is the work of Girolamo da Vicenza, and contains the remains of the Pope in a silver urn.

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Portal detail

The present urn was made at the end of the Second World War by Aquilan goldsmith Luigi Cardilli: it replaces an urn stolen by French troops in 1646, which itself replace the first urn, removed by the Prince of Orange in 1530. The transept also includes two Baroque altarpieces, one of which includes a good 14th-century statue of the Virgin, often attributed to Silvestro dell'Aquila, a pupil of Donatello. The interior of the church is not profusely decorated, or at least not much decoration has come down to us, but includes 14th- and 15th-century frescoes by an anonymous local artist, depicting scenes of the Virgin's life: the Virgin Mary between St. Agnes and St. Apollonia, a Dormition of the Virgin, a Coronation. A Crucifixion with St. Julian (who is specially venerated in L'Aquila), an early 16th-century frescoed niche of a Virgin with Child and Saints, and fourteen oversized 17th-century paintings by Karl Ruther, a monk of Danzig, representing episodes from the life of St. Celestine.

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The Nave

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Santa Maria delle Grotte (Fossa, Italy)

One km about from the center Fossa, a fine ancient village 12 km East of L'Aquila, Santa Maria ad Cryptas is among the best examples of Gothic art in Abruzzo. It was built in the latter half of the 13th century, probably on a previous church of the ninth century AD. The hut-shaped facade has a peculiar appendix on the left, due to the need of reinforce the church on that side, which was on unstable soil.

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The portal, though showing previous Romanesque influences, is one of the first Gothic examples of its kind in Abruzzo. The interior follows the model of the Benedictine temple: one nave, a square presbyterium. But the greatest treasure of the church is in the frescoes completely covering the inner walls and vault. The paintings can be divided into two different cycles belonging to different periods: a first cycle (in the apse, Southern wall, arch and inner side of the facade, was the work of the Cassinese-byzanthine school ; a second cycle was by Tuscan artists and covers the whole Northern wall. Then in the early 16th century the frescoes on the edicola were added. The narrative begins on the wall right of the Triumph arch, and proceeds along the southern wall with episodes from the Genesis. The first episodes are dedicated to the creation and start from the 4th day, with a young beardless God separating the sun from the moon, then follows the creation of animals and birds.

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More pictures of the medieval frescoes here. (http://www.inabruzzo.it/ada/provincia%20l'Aquila/D-M/Fossa%20-%20Santa%20Maria%20ad%20Cryptas/index.html)

In the apse the most beautiful of the frescoes: the Passion of Christ and the Last Supper, rich in details and with great expressiveness in the faces. In the presbyterium starting from the top, we find St. John the Baptist covered with a cloak in animal skin, St. Paul with a dagger, an adult "Pantocrato", St Peter and finally St. John the Gospel writer. The story follows with the flagellation of Jesus and then the Crucifixion in the center with Mary on the left and John on the right, representing the past and the future respectively. Then there is the Deposition, with the women clasping their arms and John placing Christ's hand to his face. Beneath it some figures representing the medieval sponsors of the work with an inscription stating their names: "Guilelmus Morellus de Santo Eusanio,Uxor eius guilelmi Morelli, Abbas Guidus Guilelma domina, Iohanna, lucetta" (Guglielmo Morello, his wife, Guidus the abbot Lady Guglielma, Giovanna, Lucetta).

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More pictures of the medieval frescoes here. (http://www.inabruzzo.it/ada/provincia%20l'Aquila/D-M/Fossa%20-%20Santa%20Maria%20ad%20Cryptas/index.html)

There are more characters in the southern wall: St. Simeone, St. Jacopo, St. Luke. Below them however time and water erosion caused the painting to fade away. The Benedictine cycle then ends on the inner side of the facade with one of the earliest Final Judgements in Abruzzo. Here the frescoes are divided into four sections: the Apostles, the angels, the resurrection of the dead and Hell. Christ is at the top surrounded by angels playing instruments; then the Elected Soul on the left and the Damned Souls on the right (among them also some monks); then the Souls of the Dead, Michael the Archangel and at the bottom Hell with its awful demons. A legend says that Dante Alighieri while attending the crowning of Pope Celestine 5th in L'Aquila in 1294, visited Santa Maria ad Cryptas and took inspiration from this final judgement when he wrote the Divine Comedy.

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More pictures of the medieval frescoes here. (http://www.inabruzzo.it/ada/provincia%20l'Aquila/D-M/Fossa%20-%20Santa%20Maria%20ad%20Cryptas/index.html)

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Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo is a church in Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna (Italy). It was erected by the Arian King Theodoric as his palace chapel, during the first quarter of the 6th century (as attested in the Liber Pontificalis). This Arian church was originally dedicated to Christ the Redeemer.

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It was reconsecrated in 561, under the rule of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, under the new name "Sanctus Martinus in Coelo Aureo" (Saint Martin in golden Heaven). Suppressing the Arian cult, the church was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, the implacable foe of heretics. According to legend, Pope Gregory the Great ordered that the mosaics in the church to be blackened, as their golden glory distracted worshippers from the prayers. The basilica was renamed again in 856, when relics of Saint Apollinare were transferred from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe because of the threat posed by frequent raids of Adriatic pirates. Its apse and atrium underwent modernization at various times, beginning in the 6th century with the destruction of mosaics whose themes were too overtly Arian or which expressed the king's glory, but the mosaics of the lateral walls, twenty-four columns with simplified Corinthian capitals, and an ambo are preserved. Renovations (and alterations) were done to the mosiacs in the mid-1800s by Felice Kibel. The present apse is a reconstruction after being damaged during World War I.

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The Nave

On the upper band of the left lateral wall are 13 small mosaics, depicting Christ's miracles and parables; and on the right wall are 13 mosaics depicting the Passion and Resurrection. However, the flagellation and crucifixion are lacking. They describe the parts of the Bible that were read aloud in the church during Lent under the rule of Theodoric the Great. On the left, Christ is always depicted as young, beardless man, dressed as a Roman Emperor. On the right, Christ is depicted with a beard. For the Arians, this emphasized that Christ grew older and became a "man of sorrows," as spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. These mosaics are separated by decorative mosaic panels depicting a shell-shaped niche with a tapestry, cross, and two doves. These mosaics were executed by at least two artists. But such an arrangement, just below the ceiling, would have been unthinkable in later Romanesque or Gothic periods. The next row of mosaics are a scheme of haloed saints, prophets and evangelists, sixteen on each side. The figures are executed in a Hellenistic-Roman tradition and show a certain individuality of expression as compared to the other figures in the basilica. Each individual depicted holds a code, book or scroll and, like many of the other figures throughout the basilica, each of their robes has a mark or symbol in it. These mosaics alternate with windows. They were executed in the time of Theodoric.

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The mosaics

The row below contains large mosaics in Byzantine style, lacking any individuality, having all identical expressions. These were executed about 50 years after the time of bishop Agnellus, when the church had already become a Catholic church. To the left is a procession of the 22 Virgins of the Byzantine period, lead by the Three Magi, moving from the city of Classe towards the group of the Madonna and Child surrounded by four angels. To the right is a similar procession of 26 Martyrs, led by Saint Martin and including Saint Apollinare, moving from the Palace of Theodoric towards a group representing Christ enthroned amid four angels. This lower band, containing a schematic representation of the Palatium on the right wall and the port of Classe with three ships on the left wall, gives us a certain idea of the architecture in Ravenna during the time of Theodoric. In another part of the church there is a rough mosaic containing the portrait of the Emperor Justinian. The entrance of the church is preceded by a marble portico built in the 16th century. Next to the church, on the right side of the portico, stands a round bell tower dating from the 9th or 10th century. When the UNESCO inscribed the church on the World Heritage List, its experts pointed out that "both the exterior and interior of the basilica graphically illustrate the fusion between the western and eastern styles characteristic of the late 5th to early 6th century. This is one of the most important buildings from the period of crucial cultural significance in European religious art":

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Details

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Orvieto Cathedral (Orvieto, Italy)

The Duomo di Orvieto is a large 14th century Roman Catholic cathedral situated in the town of Orvieto in Umbria, central Italy. Situated in a position dominating the town of Orvieto which sits perched on a volcanic plug, the cathedral’s façade is a classic piece of religious construction, containing elements of design from the 14th to the 20th century, with a large rose window, golden mosaics and three huge bronze doors, while inside resides two frescoed chapels decorated by some of the best Italian painters of the period with images of Judgement Day.

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The façade

The Gothic façade of the Orvieto Cathedral is one of the great masterpieces of the Late Middle Ages. The three-gable design is attributed to Maitani, who had clearly undergone some influence by the design scheme for the façade in Tuscan Gothic style of the Siena Cathedral by Giovanni Pisano (1287-1297) and the plan for façade of the Florence Cathedral by Arnolfo di Cambio (1294-1302). The most exciting and eye-catching part is its golden frontage, which is decorated by large bas-reliefs and statues with the symbols (Angel, Ox, Lion, Eagle) of the Evangelists created by Maitani and collaborators (between 1325 and 1330) standing on the cornice above the sculptured panels on the piers. In 1352 Matteo di Ugolino da Bologna added the bronze Lamb of God above the central gable and the bronze statue of Saint Michael on top of the gable of the left entrance. The bas-reliefs on the piers depict biblical stories from the Old and New Testament. They are considered among the most famous of all 14th century sculpture. These marbles from the fourteenth and fifteenth century are the collective and anonymous work of at least three or four masters with assistance of their workshops, It is assumed that Maitani must have worked on the reliefs on the first pier from the left, as work on the reliefs began before 1310. The installation of these marbles on the piers began in 1331.

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The Nave

The interior

The cathedral consists of a nave with six bays and two aisles, and is cruciform in shape. The concept has deliberately been left uncluttered and spacious. The interior, like the exterior, is decorated with alternative rows of alabaster and travertine but only to a height of about 1.5 m. The rows above them were painted in alternative rows of black and white stripes in the late nineteenth century. The cylindrical columns also consist of alternate rows of travertine and basalt. Their shape and ornamentation evolved during the construction of the cathedral, as well as the decoration of the capitals. The alabaster panes in the bottom parts of the aisle windows keep the interior cool during the fierce Italian summer, while the neo-Gothic stained-glass in the upper parts of the windows date from 1886-1891 and were designed by Francesco Moretti. The trussed timber roof was decorated in the 1320s by Pietro di Lello and Vanuzzo di Mastro Pierno, and was heavily restored in the 1890s by the architect Paolo Zampi and Paolo Coccheri to its current state. During the years 1335-1338 the transept was roofed with quadripartite (four-celled) stone vaults.

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The Vault and the Apse

Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio

This chapel was a fifteenth century addition to the cathedral. It is almost identical in structure to the Chapel of the Corporal. The construction of this chapel (also known as the Cappella Nuova and Signorelli chapel) was started in 1408 and completed in 1444. It is closed off from the rest of the cathedral by two wrought iron gates.

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After being abandoned for about 50 years, the decoration of the rest of the vault was awarded to Luca Signorelli on 5 April 1499. He added the scenes with the Choir of the Apostles, of the Doctors, of the Martyrs, Virgins and Patriarchs. His work pleased the board and they assigned him to paint frescoes in the large lunettes of the walls of the chapel. Work began in 1500 and was completed in 1503. There was a break in 1502 because funds were lacking. These frescoes in the chapel are considered the most complex and impressive work by Signorelli. He and his school spent two years creating a series of frescoes concerning the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment, starting with the Preaching of the Antichrist, continuing with tumultuous episodes of the End of the World, finding a counterpart in the Resurrection of the Flesh. The fourth scene is a frightening depiction of the Damned are taken to Hell and received by Demons. On the wall behind the altar, Signorelli depicts on the left side the Elect being led to Paradise and on the right side the Reprobates driven to Hell. He added to these expressive scenes some striking details.

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Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio

Complete info about all artworks here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orvieto_Cathedral).

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Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Rome, Italy)

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th century church of Rome, located in the Trastevere rione and devoted to Saint Cecilia.

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The church has a façade built in 1725 by Ferdinando Fuga, which includes a courtyard decorated with ancient mosaics, columns and a cantharus (water vessel). It includes the coat of arms and the dedication to the titular cardinal who paid for the facade, Francesco Cardinal Acquaviva d'Aragona. Among the artifacts remaining from the 13th century edifice are a mosaic depicting the Final judgment (1289-93) based on designs by Pietro Cavallini in the chorus of the monks, and the ciborium (1293) in the presbitery by Arnolfo di Cambio remain. The gothic ciborium is surrounded by four marble columns white and black, decorated with statuettes of angels, saints, prophets, and evangelists. The apse has remains of 9th century mosaics depicting the Redeemer with Saints Paul, Cecilia, Paschal I, Peter, Valerian, and Agatha.

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The mosaics (Pietro Cavallini) and the gothic ciborium (Arnolfo di Cambio)

The ceiling of Cappella dei Ponziani was decorated God the Father with evangelists (1470) by Antonio del Massaro (Antonio da Viterbo or il Pastura). The Cappella delle Reliquie was frescoed and an altarpiece provided by Luigi Vanvitelli. The nave is frescoed with the Apotheosis of Santa Cecilia (1727) by Sebastiano Conca. The church contains two altarpieces by Guido Reni: Saints Valerian and Cecilia and a Decapitation of Saint Cecilia (1603).

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Sculpture of Santa Cecilia (Stefano Maderno)

Among the most remarkable works is the graphic altar sculpture of St. Cecilia (1600) by the late-Renaissance sculptor Stefano Maderno. This sculpture reportedly is modelled on the saint's body as seen in 1595, when her tomb was opened. The statue depicts evidence of decapitation, thus helping to confirm the identity of the saint. In addition, it also it is meant to underscore the supposed incorruptibility of her cadaver (an attribute of some saints), which miraculously still had congealed blood after centuries. This statue could be conceived as proto-Baroque, since it depicts no idealized moment or person, but a theatric scene, a naturalistic representation of a dead or dying saint. It is striking, because it precedes by decades the similar high-Baroque sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (for example, his Beata Ludovica Albertoni) and Melchiorre Caffà (Santa Rosa de Lima). The crypt is also noteworthy, decorated with cosmatesque style, keeping the relics of St. Cecilia and St. Valerian.

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The Crypt

More pictures here (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=34817026#post34817026).

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Basilica di San Clemente (Rome, Italy)

The Basilica di San Clemente (Basilica of St. Clement) is an early Christian basilica in Rome dedicated to Pope St. Clement (d. 99 AD).

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Upper Church of San Clemente

The main, upper church of San Clemente is one of the most richly decorated churches in Rome. The vast majority of its architecture and art dates from its construction in the early 12th century. The entrance is on the left aisle. The most striking sight is the 12th-century apse mosaic, in a golden-bronze color and featuring a large crucifix in the center. Growing from and around the crucifix are vines, associating the cross with the Tree of Life. In the center of the apse is a throne, whose back is part of a martyr's tomb. Under a baldacchino, the high altar contains the relics of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch. An altar in the back of the church on the left contains the relics of St. Servulus (6th century). Nearby is the 15th-century tomb of Cardinal Venerio, which incorporates the 6th-century baldacchino. Directly across, on the right side of the altar, is the tomb of Cardinal B. Roverella by A. Bregno and G. Dalmata (1476). Near the entrance in the left aisle is the Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria, featuring frescoes by Masolino da Panicale (early 15th century). The west front of the church consists of a 4th-century portico and a 12th-century atrium. Entrance to the lower church is via the sacristy, off the right aisle. Here there are 19th-century copies of the frescoes in the lower church.


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The Nave (Upper church)

Lower Church of San Clemente (Grottoes/Excavations)

At the foot of the steps descending from the upper church is the narthex of the lower church, whose colonnades were bricked up in the 9th century. The columns are still visible in the wall. The atrium lies directly under that of the upper church, and has not yet been excavated. Its portico can be seen from the outside, in a depression in the street to the east of the upper church. The interior of the 4th-century church is very well preserved, but its frescoes (6th, 8th and 9th century) are quite faded. Not all that you see here is ancient: significant changes were made when this church was abandoned for the new one above. After the damage under the Normans, the colonnades between nave and aisles were walled up. A third wall running down the nave as well as the apse wall immediately behind the altar were also added to support the upper church. Rows of supports were added in the 19th century to add further support after excavations removed 130,000 cartloads of rubble from here. Originally, the 4th-century church interior consisted of a nave and two timber-roofed aisles with an apse at the west end and a narthex at the entrance, fronted by an atrium surrounded by arcaded porticoes. Faded frescoes decorate many of the walls, and date from the 6th to 11th centuries. They depict New Testament scenes and lives of several saints. The recently-discovered 6th-century baptismal font is polygonal with a round interior, 2 meters in diameter, and decorated with marble revetments forming stylized waves.

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The apse mosaics

Mithraeum and Roman Houses

At the end of the left aisle of the lower church, a 4th-century staircase leads down to the 1st-century insula (Roman apartment complex), much of which still remains unexcavated. The 3rd-century Temple of Mithras, down a narrow corridor to the left, was deliberately destroyed when the church was built, but one room has survived. It is a small artificial cave with stars on the ceiling, long side benches, and a stone altar with a relief of Mithras slaying the bull. The room opposite and the room down a corridor to the temple's right are decorated with stuccoed geometric and floral patterns. Continuing past the temple and taking a left, there is a long Roman alley that divides the insula and the mansion. Straight ahead past the alley entrance is the entrance to the mansion. On the right (sometimes closed) are two of the best-preserved rooms, with beautiful Roman brickwork. The sound of rushing water can be heard throughout this area. It comes from a lost spring or maybe a 1st-century aqueduct running towards the Tiber via the Cloaca Maxima, the main sewer of ancient Rome.

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Cappella di Santa Caterina (Masolino da Panicale)

More info and pictures about the lower church and the mithraeum here (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-san-clemente.htm).

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San Pietro in Vincoli (Rome, Italy)

San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is a basilica in Rome, best known for being the home of Michelangelo's magnificent statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II.

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History

Also known as the Basilica Eudoxiana, it was first built in 432-440 to house the relic of the chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem. According to legend, when the Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III) gifted the chains to Pope Leo I, while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. The chains are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica. The basilica underwent several restorations and rebuildings, among them a restoration by Pope Adrian I, rebuilding by Pope Sixtus IV and by Pope Julius II. There was also a renovation in 1875. The front portico, attributed to Baccio Pontelli, was added in 1475. The cloister (1493-1503) has been attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo. The Titulus S. Petri ad vincula is currently vacant. The most recent Cardinal Priest of the basilica was Pío Cardinal Laghi, who died January 11, 2009.

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The Nave

Interior

The interior has a nave and two aisles, with three apses divided by antique Doric columns. The aisles are surmounted by cross-vaults, while the nave has an 18th century lacunar ceiling, frescoed in the center by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying the Miracle of the Chains (1706). Michelangelo's Moses (completed 1515), while originally intended as part of a massive 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II, became the centerpiece of the Pope's funeral monument and tomb in this, his family's church (della Rovere family). Moses is depicted with horns, as opposed to "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew between the word for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and in this case was easier for the sculptor (as sculpting concrete horns is easier than sculpting rays of light) and would have been understood by all who saw it as referring to the radiance of Moses' face; they would not have actually thought that he had horns.

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The Mausoleum of Pope Julius II, by Michelangelo

The Michelangelo's Moses

This is the last of Michelangelo's projects for the tomb which Pope Julius commissioned in 1506. The pope wanted his monument to be exemplary and Michelangelo planned a burial chamber that would be a truly architectonic structure, with statues of the old and new testament figures at different levels. At the top, above the others, there would be Julius and around him allegorical figures showing the arts and the virtues in triumph over the vices. The monument was changed frequently because of difficulties with the Pope's heirs and, when finished in the years 1542 -1545, it was greatly reduced in comparison with the original and placed not in St. Peter's but in this church where Julius had been cardinal. The statue of Moses was sculpted during the years when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. You see Moses as he glares irately at the Jews after coming down from Mt. Sinai with the Tables of the Law. The extraordinary force of this figure, the tension in the veins and muscles, the posture and the furious expression, have rightly made this Moses one of the most admired masterpieces of all time.

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The Michelangelo's Moses

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Abbazia di Novacella (Verna-Bressanone, Italy)

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The widest monastery of the whole Tyrol, Novacella Abbey lies not far from Bressanone and it is surrounded by woods, meadows and vineyards. Founded in the XII century (1142) by the bishop of Bressanone as a home for pilgrims travelling to Rome trough Brennero valley, it has been enlarged in the following centuries and given to the Augustinian order. Since mediaeval times it has been the most important centre in Tyrol of learning and culture, known all over Europe. It is still today administrated by the Augustinian Friars.

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Interior

In the monastery, there are several buildings from different periods and made with different styles; the result is a charming mixture: the tower bell, the walls of the church and S. Michael Archangel's Chapel are in Romanic style, the church, the vaults, the paintings in the cloister, some portals and some ruins of the walls, the entrance tower are in Gothic style, while the outside decorations of the church and the rich library are in Baroque and Rococo style. Worth a visit are the great Baroque church dedicated to the Madonna, full of works of art, and the wonderful library, which extends on two stocks where about 65,000 printed volumes apart from the manuscripts divided into 43 subjects are conserved.

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The frescoes (cloister)

The Abbey is not only a cultural centre but also a big wine growing and producing reality in Alto Adige. In fact the great court of the abbey also contains the entrance to the cellars, where wine has been made from local grapes for at least nine centuries. The part open to the public is outside the abbey complex itself next to the great gate, where rooms full of tables are set aside for the wine lover to taste and select his purchases. The abbey produces all the wines included in the DOC Valle Isarco and is particularly famous for its Sylvaner.

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The frescoes (cloister)

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WOW!!! good job Pincio!!!!
Stunning pictures.:cheers:

fantastic!!!

Thank you!

Oratorio di San Pellegrino (Bominaco, Italy)

Called the "Sistine Chapel of Abruzzo", this little church is in excellent condition after the earthquake. Here (http://www.inabruzzo.it/ada/provincia%20l'Aquila/A-C/Bominaco%20-%20San%20Pellegrino/index.html) all the pictures of the fresco decoration.

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The Oratorio of San Pellegrino was reserved to the liturgy of the Benedictine monastery. According to tradition, the church was founded by Charlemagne who, as reported in a document of the end of the 8th century, while in Abruzzo at Settefonti, near to the ancient Roman city of Peltuinum, had seen in dream a pilgrim that begged him to complete a church in honor of San Pellegrino, a Christian martyr much beloved in the area.

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So Charlemagne gave to the abbey of Farfa vast lands, and the Benedictine monks began to build on the site what was to become the monastery of Momenaco. Under a stone on the right-hand side of the altar the body of the saint is said to be buried. The outside is very simple, irregular, typical of a rather primitive architecture. The inside instead is unique for the marvellous frescoes that covers vaults and walls entirely for over 470 square meters.

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Two "plutei" in the center of the church, representing a dragon and a griffin respectively, divide the environment into two reserved sectors, as in the early Christian churches, one for the baptizes and the other for the catechumens. The frescoes of the oratory represent episodes of sacred history belonging to four cycles: the Childhood of Christ, the Passion, the Final Judgment, the life of Saint Pellegrino.

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Chiesa del Gesù (Rome, Italy)

Chiesa del Gesù is the mother church of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. Its facade is "the first truly baroque façade". The church served as model for innumerable Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in the Americas.

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Interior decoration

The most striking feature of the interior decoration is the ceiling fresco is the grandiose Triumph of the Name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Gaulli also frescoed the cupola. The first chapel to the right of the nave is the Cappella di Sant'Andrea, so named because the church previously on the site, which had to be demolished to make way for the Jesuit church, was dedicated to St. Andrew. All the painted works were completed by the Florentine Agostino Ciampelli. The frescoes on the arches depict the male martyrs saints Pancrazio, Celso, Vito, and Agapito, while the pilasters depict the female martyred saints Cristina, Margherita, Anastasia, Cecilia, Lucy, and Agatha. The ceiling is frescoed with the Glory of the Virgin surrounded by martyred saints Clemente, Ignazio di Antiochia, Cipriano, and Policarpo The lunettes are frescoed with Saints Agnes & Lucy face the storm and St. Stephen and the Deacon St. Lawrence. The altarpiece depicts the Martyrdom of St Andrew.

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The ceiling

The second chapel to the right is the Cappella della Passione, with lunette frescoes depicting scenes of the Passion: Jesus in Gethsemane, Kiss of Judas, and six canvases on the pilasters: Christ at the column Christ before the guards, Christ before Herod, Ecce Homo, Exit to Calvary, and Crucifixion. The altarpiece of the Madonna with child and beatified Jesuits, replaces the original altarpiece by Scipione Pulzone. The program of paintings is indepted to Giuseppe Valeriani and painted by Gaspare Celio. The altar has a bronze urn with the remains of 18th century Jesuit St. Giuseppe Pignatelli, canonized by Pius XII in 1954. Medals on the wall commemorate P. Jan Roothaan (1785-1853) and P. Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991), the 21st and 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The third chapel to the right is the Cappella degli Angeli has a ceiling fresco of the Coronation of Virgin and altarpiece of Angels worshiping Trinity by Federico Zuccari. He also painted the canvases on the walls, Defeat of rebel angels on right, and Angels liberate souls from Purgatory on the left. Other frescoes represent Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. The angles in the niches of the pilasters were completed by both Silla Longhi and Flaminio Vacca.

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The apse

The larger Saint Francis Xavier Chapel in the right transept, was designed by Pietro da Cortona, originally commissioned by cardinal Giovanni Francesco Negroni. The polychromatic marbles enclose a stucco relief representing Francis Xavier welcomed to heaven by angels. The altarpiece shows the Death of Francis Xavier in Shangchuan Island by Carlo Maratta. The arches are decorated with scenes from the life of the saint, including Apotheosis of the saint in the center, Crucifixion, Saint lost at sea, and at left, Baptism of an Indian princess, by Giovanni Andrea Carlone. The silver reliquary conserves part of the saint's right arm, his other remains are interred in the Jesuit church in Goa. The last chapel on the far end of the nave, to the right of the high altar, is the chapel of the Sacro Cuore (holy heart of Jesus). The sacristy is on the right. In the presbytery is a bust of Cardinal Bellarmine by Bernini. The imposing St. Ignatius Chapel is the churche's masterpiece, designed by Andrea Pozzo houses the saint's tomb.

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Cupola del Gesù

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Abbazia di San Galgano (Tuscany, Italy)

The original nucleus of the monastic complex Cistercian of Saint Galgano (Galgano Guidotti 1148-1181) is constituted by the hermitage of Montesiepi, built in Roman style as mausoleum of the Saint between the 1182 and the 1185.

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Its greater particularity is the so-called 'the Rotunda of Saint Galgano' with a unique, for the constructions of that time, plan. It encloses, beyond to the tomb of the saint, the famous rock with the sword. Although at a first look it can seem an emulation of ancient Etruscan tombs of Populonia, Vetulonia and Volterra, the architect responsible of its construction inspired itself to Castel S.Angelo and the Pantheon of Rome. In the following centuries the Rotunda was strongly manumitted, but the perfect restoration of the year 1924 brought it back to the original aspect. The dome is constructed using alternated rows of white stone and bricks.

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The Abbey: interior

With the growth of the interest in the cult of Saint Galgano many rich nobles wanted to contribute to the embellishment of the Rotunda, in the year 1340 was begun the construction of a Chapel on the north side, then frescoed by the great artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti, he's paintings are still today in part visible thanks to a careful restoration work that has arrested their degrade. The hermitage began too small to contain the monks and the pilgrims, so in 1218 was decided to begin the construction of a new imposing Abbey in the plain below. The works were encouraged also by the Bishop of Volterra. The community of Saint Galgano began the point of reference for all the territory and for the interest of the Senese Republic. The Abbey was built in the classic gothic forms of all the other Cistercian constructions, with plan at Latin cross with three aisles, rich of carved capitals and rose-windows, cloister, halls, bell tower.

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The Abbey: interior

The richness of S.Galgano and the good relationships with Siena attracted on it the incursions of the Florentine armies that, together with other political events, carried to a rapid decadence of the abbey since from the first half of 15th century: in the 1550 only five monks were in the abbey and at the beginning of 17th century only one old and poor monk still lived between its walls, already in ruin. On the 6 of January 1786 the bell tower, with its 36 meters high, collapsed sweeping up great part of the roof of the church. In the 1789 the great Abbey was definitively abandoned and become an enormous quarry of stones and columns for all the buildings of the zone. Fortunately, from the beginning of this century, many jobs of restoration and maintenance have been undertaken, so that today the ruins of Saint Galgano, by now without more traces of the roof, are one of the most visited medieval monuments in Tuscany.

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Hermitage: The sword in the stone

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Sant'Anastasia (Verona, Italy)

Santa Anastasia is a church of the Dominican Order in Verona, northern Italy. In Gothic style, it is located in the most ancient part of the city, near the Ponte Pietra.

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The façade is divided into three vertical section corresponding to the nave and the two aisles in the interior. Unfinished, the façade is mostly in brickwork. In the centre of the middle section is a simply rose window. The 15th century portal has two doors, and is enclosed into a Gothic structure (1330) with arches supported by ornamental columns in red, black and white marble. The architrave has three statues: the central and larger is Madonna with Child of Venetian school, while the other represents St. Anastasia and St. Catherine at the Wheel. The side sections of the façade, corresponding to the aisles, have large stainglassed mullioned windows, flanked by two square belfries.

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The Nave

Interior

The interior, on the Latin cross plan, is divided into a nave and two aisles, with crossed vaults, separated by six columns each; the latter are in white or red Verona marble, with Gothic capitals. The four columns over the high altar show the coat of arms of the Castelbarco of Trento, a family who extensively contributed to the church's construction. Outside the entrance is the Tomb (Arca) of Guglielmo di Castelbarco, podestà of Verona, which anticipates the more famous Scaliger Tombs. The two stoups before the first two columns stands on two hunchback figures, one of which attributed to Paolo Veronese's father, Gabriele Caliari.

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The funerary monuments

Notable is the funerary monument to Cortesia Serego, on the left of the apse, which was finished in 1432. It portrays the riding figure of Cortesia, clad with an armor and holding a commanding wand. The horse is placed of the sculpted sarcophagus, which was has always been empty. The fresco part represent the Annunciation and the Saints Peter of Verona and Dominic. The Pellegrini Chapel has terracotta statues by Michele di Firenze, executed before 1436. A frieze by the latter, or by Pisanello, has now disappeared. The Pellegrini chapel also houses the grave of Wilhelm von Bibra. The church ends with a large apse.

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The frescoes

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Thank you so much for posting these fantastic views of Italian churches. They are just Magnificent!!!!!

These architectural and artistic masterpieces are glorious ... really gorgeous ... and I cannot describe how impressed I am. You must be very proud of this wonderful artistic heritage Italy has given to the rest of the world, it shows what mere humans can achieve. I hope these churches will be preserved for all time.

Santa Maria dei Servi (Bologna, Italy)

Santa Maria dei Servi is a Catholic basilica in Bologna, Italy. It was founded in 1346, as the church of the Servite Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was designed by Padre Andrea da Faenza whose work can also be seen at the Basilica of San Petronio, also in Bologna. It was raised to the staus of basilica by Pope Pius XII.

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Externally, the church is very plain, undecorated brick. The facade, which was constructed in several phases, has never been decorated. The remarkable feature of the church is its courtyard or atrium. This is a feature that was common in Early Christian churches, including the earlier St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but has almost always disappeared. This is an unusual case of an atrium being built in the 16th century. It appears to have been modelled on the arcade built by Brunelleschi at the Hospital of the Innocents (Ospedale degli Innocenti) in Florence, and later extended to other parts of the large piazza, including the front of the Church of the Assumption.

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The Nave

Interior

The basilica is 100 metres long by 20 metres wide. It has the form of a Latin cross but the transepts do not project beyond the aisles. The shallow apse is five segments of an octagon, as is common in Italian Gothic churches. It was designed in the Gothic style with pointed arches throughout. At the death of Padre Andrea in 1396, the work was not complete. However, the completion in the 15th century saw little change to the design of the basilica itself, which is entirely Gothic in appearance. The central nave and side aisles are divided from each other by stout round columns with floriate capitals, the shafts being red in colour and the capitals and bases of contrasting pale stone, adding a decorative effect to the very simple architecture. The plastered walls above the arcade are pierced by occular windows set high under the gothic vault. The vault is of a simple quadrupartite form with the brick ribs in contrast to the infilling.

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The Monument dedicated Gian Giacomo and Andrea Grati

Artworks

Among the artworks included in the church, are a Holy Virgin Enthroned by Cimabue, a marble altarpiece of the Annunciation of Mary by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, known as "Michelangelo" Montorsoli (1558), traces of 14th century frescoes by Vitale da Bologna, and many others. The church also contains a famous pipe organ, regarded as one of the finest in Europe. The organ is unusual in that it can be operated with a mechanical action, as a barrel organ.

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Holy Virgin by Cimabue

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I'm glad you like this thread. Thank you :)

Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista (Urbino, Italy)

Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region in Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482.

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The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, only slightly marred by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino (see below). Its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana.

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Interior

Palazzo Ducale

The main attraction of Urbino is the Palazzo Ducale, begun in the second half of the 15th century by Federico II da Montefeltro. It houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, one of the most important collections of Renaissance paintings in the world. Next to the Palazzo Ducale ther is the Cathedral, a church founded in 1021 over a 6th century religious edifice.

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The frescoes

The Oratory of St. John the Baptist

The Oratory of St. John the Baptist was frescoed in 1416 by the two brothers Lorenzo e Jacopo Salimbeni da San Severino; the church is an exceptional example of that International Gothic style which links medieval painting to the new achievements of the Renaissance.

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The frescoes

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A little piece of Tuscany in Sardinia, a jewell of Romanesque art

Santa Maria Cattedrale di Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy)

The Cathedral of Cagliari dedicated to St. Mary is situated in Piazza Palazzo in the historical quarter of Castello. The building was constructed by the Pisans in the XIII Century in the place where the church of St. Cecily once existed.

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Over the centuries, the church has suffered a lot of transformations that are especially visible on its façade, originally constructed in Roman-Pisan style and modified in 1702 when baroque elements were added. Later, in 1933, while looking for the original medieval façade, the baroque decorations were substituted by neo-Roman ones that are still present today. There are still a few elements of the first, original construction like the bell-tower, transept doors, central doors' architrave and some sculpture fragments. Most of the ornaments and the internal decorations represents the baroque style.

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Interior

The church was constructed on a cross plan with three naves traversed by a transversal one (transept); the internal area of an altar (presbytery) is raised and closed in by a marble balustrade. The Triptych of Clemente VII (Trittico di Clemente VII) that represents the Flamingo's school is also placed there. With regards to the lateral chapels, there is an interesting statue of Madonna with a Child (or Black Madonna) (Madonna con Bambino o Madonna Nera) from the XIV Century situated in the second chapel on the right. In the transept to the left is an impressive mausoleum dating back to the XVII Century dedicated to Martino il Giovane, an Aragonese Prince who died of malaria in 1409 in Cagliari.

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The Crypt

The pulpit

Among the most antique pieces of art worth seeing is the pulpit made by Guglielmo da Pisa, constructed around 1160 for the Pisan cathedral of Cagliari in 1312. There is also an entrance to the Sanctuary, excavated in the rocks, where the presumed relics of martyred Christians were placed. The relics were recovered in the Basilica of S.Saturno in Cagliari. The central chapel's decorations are very impressive and present 584 different rose windows in baroque style. It is possible to visit the Sacrestia dei Beneficiati, the Council Room and the Museo Capitolare next to the church where the Cathedral's precious treasure is kept. The treasure is hand-made and decorated with sacred ornaments coming from the XV to XIX Centuries.

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The Pulpit by Guglielmo da Pisa

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Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Santa Maria delle Grazie ("Our Lady of Grace") is a famous church and convent in Milan, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. The church is also famous for the mural of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.

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Duke of Milan Francesco I Sforza ordered to build a Dominican convent and a church in the place where a small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of the Graces was. The main architect was Guiniforte Solari, the convent was completed by 1469 while the church took more time. The new duke Ludovico Sforza decided to have the church as the Sforza family burial place and rebuild the cloister and the apse which were completed after 1490. Ludovico's wife Beatrice was buried in the church in 1497. The apse of the church is widely believed to be by Donato Bramante. However, there's no real evidence of the fact, but that Bramante lived in Milan at the time, and he is once quoted in the acts of the church (a marble delivery in 1494). He continued the gothic style from the first part, but mixed with romanic influence. The slightly excessive height of this apse has received some critics.

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Tribuna (Apse)

The Last Supper

The Last Supper is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him. The Last Supper measures 460 × 880 centimeters (15 feet × 29 ft) and covers the back wall of the dining hall at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, but Leonardo's interpretation gave it much greater realism and depth. The lunettes above the main painting, formed by the triple arched ceiling of the refectory, are painted with Sforza coats-of-arms.

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The Nave

The opposite wall of the refectory is covered by the Crucifixion fresco by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, to which Leonardo added figures of the Sforza family in tempera. These figures have deteriorated in much the same way as has The Last Supper.) Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498—however, he did not work on the piece continuously throughout this period. This beginning date is not certain, as "the archives of the convent have been destroyed and our meagre documents date from 1497 when the painting was nearly finished".
More info about the Last Supper here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo))

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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

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Basilica di San Miniato al Monte (Florence, Italy)

San Miniato al Monte (St. Minias on the Mountain) is a basilica in Florence, central Italy, standing atop one of the highest points in the city. It and has been described as the finest Romanesque structure in Tuscany and one of the most beautiful churches in Italy.

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The geometrically patterned marble façade was probably begun in about 1090, although the upper parts date from the 12th century or later, financed by the Florentine Arte di Calimala (cloth merchants’ guild), who were responsible for the church’s upkeep from 1288 (the eagle which crowns the façade was their symbol). The mosaic of Christ between the Virgin and St Minias was made in 1260. The campanile collapsed in 1499 and was replaced in 1523, although it was never finished. During the siege of Florence in 1530 it was used as an artillery post by the defenders and Michelangelo had it wrapped in mattresses to protect it from enemy fire. The interior is extremely unusual, with the choir raised on a platform above the large crypt, and has changed little since it was first built. The patterned pavement dates from 1207. The centre of the nave is dominated by the beautiful freestanding Cappella del Crocefisso (Chapel of the Crucifix), designed by Michelozzo in 1448. It originally housed the miraculous crucifix now in Santa Trìnita and is decorated with panels long thought to be painted by Agnolo Gaddi. The terracotta decoration of the vault is by Luca della Robbia.

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The Apse

The crypt is the oldest part of the church and the high altar supposedly contains the bones of St Minias himself (although there is evidence that these were removed to Metz before the church was even built). In the vaults are frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi. The raised choir and presbytery contain a magnificent Romanesque pulpit and screen made in 1207. The apse is dominated by a great mosaic dating from 1297, which depicts the same subject as that on the façade and is probably by the same unknown artist. The crucifix above the high altar is attributed to Luca della Robbia. The sacristy is decorated with a great fresco cycle on the Life of St Benedict by Spinello Aretino (1387). The Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo to the left of the nave, "one of the most magnificent funerary monuments of the Italian Renaissance", was built in 1473 as a memorial to Cardinal James of Lusitania, who died in Florence, to which he was Portuguese ambassador, in 1459. His is the only tomb in the church. The chapel is a collaboration of outstanding artists of Florence: it was designed by Brunelleschi's associate, Antonio Manetti, and finished after his death by Giovanni Rossellino.

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The Nave

The tomb was made by Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino. The chapel decoration is by Alesso Baldovinetti, Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, and Luca della Robbia. Adjacent to the church is the fine cloister, planned as early as 1426 and built from 1443 to mid-1450s. It was also designed by Bernardo and Antonio Rosselino, and financed by the Arte della Mercantia of Florence, and the fortified bishop’s palace, built in 1295 and later used as a barracks and a hospital. The whole complex is surrounded by defensive walls, originally built hastily by Michelangelo during the siege and in 1553 expanded into a true fortress (fortezza) by Cosimo I de' Medici. The walls now enclose a large cemetery, the Porte Sante, laid out in 1854. Carlo Collodi, creator of Pinocchio, politician Giovanni Spadolini, painter Pietro Annigoni, poet and author Luigi Ugolini, film producer Mario Cecchi Gori, sculptor Libero Andreotti, writer Giovanni Papini, and physicist Bruno Benedetto Rossi are buried there.

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The frescoes

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Parma Cathedral (Parma, Italy)

Parma Cathedral (Duomo) is a cathedral church in Parma, Emilia-Romagna (Italy). It is an important Italian Romanesque cathedral, and the artist Correggio fresco is one of the masterpieces of Renaissance fresco work.

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Interior

The interior has a Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles divided by pilasters. The presbytery and the transept are elevated, to allow space for the underlying crypt. The latter houses fragments of ancient mosaics which show the presence here of a cult temple from at least in the 3rd or 4th century AD. The side chapels were built to house the sepulchers of the noble families of Parma: two of them, the Valeri Chapel and the Commune Chapel, have maintained the original decoration from the 14th century. Particularly noteworthy are the capitals, also in the exterior: many of them are characterized by rich decorations with leaves, mythological figures, scenes of war, as well as Biblical and Gospel scenes. The paintings, as revealed by a capital stripped of the 16th century gold painting, were originally polychrome.

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In the right transept is the Deposition by Benedetto Antelami (1178). The cycle of frescoes in the nave and apse walls are by Lattanzio Gambara and Bernardino Gatti. Along the nave, in the lunnetes above the spans are monochrome frescoes of Old Testament stories, as well as event of the passion. This culminates in the apse cupola, frescoed with "Christ, Mary, Saints, and Angels in Glory" (1538-1544) by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli. The 15th century frescoes in the Valeri Chapel are attributed to the studio of Bertolino de'Grossi. Those in the Capella del Comune, presumably by the same hands, were painted after the plague of 1410-11, and dedicated to Saint Sebastian. The Crypt has a monument to Saint Bernardo di Uberti, bishop of Parma 1106-1133, patron of the diocese. The monument, executed in the 1544 by Prospero and Girolamo Clementi on design of Bèdoli Mazzola. The sacristy contains works attributed to Luchino Bianchini (1491). There are four reliefs by Benedetto Antelami, from 1178. The portal also has two carvings by Luchino Bianchino. Two great marble lions support the archivolt columns, and were carved in the 1281 by Giambono da Bissone. The Ravacaldi chapel has frescoes attriguted to the studio of Bertolino de’Grassi.

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Cupola Frescoes of Assumption of the Virgin' by Antonio da Correggio

The Assumption of the Virgin (526-1530) depicts the Assumption of Mary. This highly influential fresco by the Italian Late Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio decorates the dome of the Cathedral of Parma, Italy. Correggio signed the contract for the painting on November 3, 1522. The composition is influenced by Melozzo's perspective. The dome decoration includes the decoration of the dome base, which represents the four protector saints of Parma: St. John the Baptist with the lamb, St. Hilary with a yellow mantle, St. Thomas[1] by with an angel carrying the martyrdom palm leave, and St. Bernard, the sole figure looking upwards. Below the feet of Jesus, the uncorrupt Virgin in red and blue robes is lofted upward by a team of angels. Ringing the base of the dome, between the windows stand the perplexed apostles, as if ringing her empty tomb. The innumerable angels (who sing or play several musical instruments) are a vortex upward. In the group of blessed can be seen: Adam and Eve, Judith with the head of Holofernes. At the centre of the dome is a foreshortened beardless Jesus descending to meet his mother. This fresco (a painting in plaster with water-soluble pigments) would serve as a catalyst for the Baroque style of dramatically illusionistic ceiling painting. The entire architectural surface is treated as a single pictorial unit of vast proportions, equating the dome of the church with the vault of heaven. The realistic way the figures in the clouds seem to protrude into the spectators' space is an audacious and astounding use for the time of foreshortening. This fresco inspired Carlo Cignani for his fresco Assumption of the Virgin, in the cathedral church of Forlì.

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The Cupola frescoes by Correggio

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Parma Baptistery (Parma, Italy)

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The Baptistery of Parma (Italian: Battistero di Parma) is a religious edifice in Parma, northern Italy. The baptistery of the Parma Cathedral, it is considered to be a transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture, and is one of the most important Medieval monuments in Europe.

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The Cupola

The Baptistery was commissioned to Benedetto Antelami by the City Council of Parma in 1196. The outside of pink Verona Marble is octagonal. The inside contains sixteen arches, forming alcoves each containing a painted scene. All these are 13th and 14th century frescoes and paintings. The most striking part of the Baptistery, however, is its painted ceiling. Sixteen rays come out of the center of the ceiling, which each correspond to the arches.

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Interior

However, problems were posed over time as the paintings were not true frescoes. The paint would start to come of the walls and would be literally hanging on. Due to this, the Baptistery had to be painstakingly consolidated and restored with syringes and spatulas.

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Details of the statues

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Battistero Neoniano (Ravenna, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Baptistry of Neon (Battistero Neoniano) in Ravenna, Italy is the most ancient monument remaining in Ravenna, and was partly erected on the site of a Roman bath. It is also called the Orthodox Baptistry to distinguish it from the Arian Baptistry constructed on behest of Ostrogothic King Theodoric some 50 years later.

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The octagonal brick structure was erected by Bishop Ursus at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century, as part of his great Basilica (destroyed in 1734). The baptistery was finished by Bishop Neon at the end of the 5th century, at which time the mosaic decorations were added. The original floor is now some 3 meters underground, so the proper structure and extent of the building can no longer be seen. The octagonal design of the building, employed in virtually all Early Christian baptisteries, symbolizes the seven days of the week plus the Day of the Resurrection and Eternal Life.

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The Ceiling mosaics

The ceiling mosaic depicts John the Baptist baptizing Jesus (depicted with beard) standing waist high in the Jordan River, which is shown in the veils. To one side stands a pagan water god with a reed in one hand and a garment in the other, representing the Jordan River. A procession of the twelve apostles proceeds around the center mosaic in two directions, ending with Saint Peter meeting Saint Paul.

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The mosaics decoration

The Baptistry is one of the eight structures in Ravenna registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to the ICOMOS evaluation of this patrimony, "this is the finest and most complete surviving example of the early Christian baptistery" which "retains the fluidity in representation of the human figure derived from Greco-Roman art".

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View of interior

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Battistero degli Ariani (Ravenna, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Arian Baptistry in Ravenna, Italy was erected by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great between the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the sixth century. It is thus contemporary with the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo.

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In 565, after the condemnation of the Arian cult, this small octagonal brick structure was converted into a Catholic oratory named Santa Maria. Greek monks added a monastery during the period of the Exarchate of Ravenna and further dedicated the structure to Saint Maria in Cosmedin. Around the year 1700, the structure passed into private hands, and in 1914 it was acquired by the Italian government. The Allied bombardment of World War II helped clear away other structures which had encroached on it from all sides, enabling researchers to view the details of its exterior for the first time. As with other monuments in Ravenna, the original floor is now some 2.3 meters underground.

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Details of interior

The Baptistry is octagonal in shape; inside are four niches and a dome with mosaics, depicting the baptism of Jesus by Saint John the Baptist. Jesus is shown beardless and naked, half-submerged in the Jordan. John the Baptist is wearing a leopard skin. On the left stands a pagan god in the guise of a white-haired, old man in a green cloak, holding a leather bag. He is the personalisation of the river Jordan. Above, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove sprays lustral water from its beak. Below, a procession of the Apostles, led in separate directions by Saint Peter and Saint Paul circle the dome, meeting at a throne with a jeweled crucifix resting on a purple cushion. It took the artists several years to complete these mosaics, as can be clearly seen from the different colors of the stones used to depict the grass at the feet of the apostles. The entire composition is remarkably similar to that of the Orthodox Baptistry of Neon. The walls are bare, but were not always so. During archaeological investigations, some 170 kilograms of tessera were found on the floor.

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The Ceiling

The Arian Baptistry is located next to the Church of Spirito Santo, also built by Theodoric and originally named Hagia Anastasis (Holy Resurrection). This was an Arian cathedral, and it was re-consecrated as the Catholic cathedral of Saint Teodoro (soldier and martyr of Amasea in Porto) in 526. Little remains of the original church after its reconstruction in 1543; some historians speculate that the original mosaics were already lost over a thousand years earlier during its Catholic reconstruction due to Arian themes. The Baptistry is one of the eight structures in Ravenna registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to the ICOMOS evaluation of this patrimony, "the iconography of the mosaics, whose quality is outstanding, is of importance in that it illustrates the Trinity, a somewhat unexpected element in the art of an Arian building, since the Trinity was not accepted in this doctrine".

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Detail of mosaics

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Santa Maria del Casale (Brindisi, Italy)

The Church of Santa Maria del Casale is an important tourist sight in Brindisi (Apulia)

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Even in antique times, as it was located along the Trajan way, Brindisi played a decisive role in the regional road system as the key junction between Rome and the East for trade and pilgrimages. The magnificent church of Santa Maria del Casale, a point of contact for communication with the East, is an interesting place of worship, built between 1300 and 1310.

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Interior

This is a remarkable specimen of architectural transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style, which stands on the site of an ancient chapel with a much-worshipped icon of the Virgin with Child. The current church, build in Angevin times, must have been commissioned by Philip, Prince of Taranto. The building is mentioned in the proceedings of an important lawsuit against the Knights Templar that was held there.

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The Annunciation

The Byzantine frescoes

The entrance is embellished by a hanging prothyrum, and the interior has one nave only. It contains some Byzantine frescoes, the most interesting of which are the Annunciation, the Tree of the Cross, the Virgin with Child and Saints, the Nativity, Christ Enthroned, scenes from the Passion and the Last Judgement. Inside the church is a marble pillar with a IX-century cross. Around the corner from the church are some charming cloisters.

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The frescoes

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Cattedrale di Anagni (Anagni, Italy)

Anagni is an ancient town in Latium, central Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome, famous for its connections with the papacy and for the picturesque monuments of its unspoiled historical center. It is a historical center in Ciociaria.

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The Cathedral

The Cathedral of Anagni, dedicated to Santa Maria is the main sight of the city. It was built in Romanesque style constructed during the years 1071-1105, with Gothic-style additions in the mid-13th century.

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The Nave

The Crypt

The most noteworthy part of the Cathedral is its crypt, which contains the tomb of Saint Magnus of Anagni, the patron saint of Anagni, and Saint Secundina of Anagni. The frescoes covering all the walls and ceiling are some of the best works of Byzantine art in Italy, and the unrestored Cosmati floor is in excellent condition.

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The Crypt

On the same level as the crypt is the Oratorio of Saint Thomas (Becket) also completely frescoed though the works are not in as good condition as those in the crypt. The museum possesses a Becket reliquary chasse (one of around four dozen still around, but nonetheless beautiful for that) and what is claimed to be a Becket miter. The western wall has a contemporary statue of Pope Boniface VIII looking out over the Piazza Innocenzo III.

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Detail of the frescoes

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Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio (Rome, Italy)

The Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola is one of the most important baroque church of Rome.

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Interior

The church has a Latin cross plan with numerous side chapels. The building was inspired by the Jesuit mother church, the Church of the Gesù in Rome (finished in the late 16th century). The imposing order of Corinthian pilasters that rings the entire interior, the theatrical focus on the high altar at the rear of the broad eastern apse, the church's colored marbles, animated stucco figural relief, richly ornamented altars, extensive gilding, and bold Tromp l’oeil paintings in the "dome" at its crossing and in the nave ceiling all produce a festive, sumptuous effect. The church stages the triumph of its dedicatee most effectively. The nave's west wall has a sculptural group showing Magnificence and Religion (1650) by Alessandro Algardi. Algardi also helped design the high reliefs in stucco that run on both lateral nave walls just above the entries to the chapels and beneath the nave's grandiose entablature. Other artworks in the church include a huge statue of St. Ignatius, in stucco, by Camillo Rusconi (1728) and the glass coffin of, and portrait of Cardinal Bellarmino within. (Bellarmino died in 1621).

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Interior

Frescoes of Andrea Pozzo

Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit brother, painted the grandiose fresco that stretches across the nave ceiling (after 1685). It celebrates the work of Saint Ignatius and the Society of Jesus in the world presenting the saint welcomed into paradise by Christ and the Virgin Mary and surrounded by allegorical representations of all four continents. Pozzo worked to open up, even dissolve the actual surface of the nave's barrel vault illusionistically, arranging a perspectival projection to make an observer see a huge and lofty cupola (of a sort), open to the bright sky, and filled with upward floating figures. A marble disk set into the middle of the nave floor marks the ideal spot from which observers might fully experience the illusion. A second marker in the nave floor further east provides the ideal vantage point for the trompe l'oeil painting on canvas that covers the crossing and depicts a tall, ribbed and coffered dome. The cupola one expects to see here was never built and in its place,in 1685, Andrea Pozzo supplied a painting on canvas with a perpectival projection of a cupola.

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The Ceiling frescoed by Andrea Pozzo

Destroyed in 1891, the painting was subsequently replaced. Pozzo also frescoed the pendentives in the crossing decorating each with an Old Testament figures Judith, David, Samson, and Jaele. Again by Pozzo, the frescoes in the eastern apse present the life and apotheosis of St. Ignatius. The Siege of Pamplona in the tall panel on the left commemorates the wounding of St. Ignatius, which led to the convalesence that transformed his life. The panel over the high altar with The Vision of St. Ignatius at the Chapel of La Storta commemorates the place where the saint received his divine calling. St. Ignatius sends St. Francis Xavier to India recalls the aggressive Jesuit missionary work in foreign countries, and finally, St. Ignatius Receiving Francesco Borgia recalls the recruitment of the Spanish noble who would become General of the Company of Jesuits. Pozzo is also responsible for the fresco in the conch depicting St. Ignatius Healing the Pestilent.

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The angel statues

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Magnificent pics indeed Pincio :cheers:

Basilica di San Marco (Venice, Italy)

Saint Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco) is one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies on St Mark's Square adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the "chapel" of the Venetian rulers, and not the city's cathedral. Since 1807 it has been the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice. For its opulent design, gilded Byzantine mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building was known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold).

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Interior

The interior is based on a Greek cross, with each arm divided in three naves and emphasized by a dome of its own. This is based on Justinian's Basilica of the Apostles in Constantinople. The marble floor (1100s, but underwent many restorations) is entirely tessellated in geometric patterns and animal designs. The techniques used were opus sectile and opus tessellatum. The lower register of walls and pillars is completely covered with polychrome marble slabs. The transition between the lower and the upper register is delimited all around the basilica by passageways which largely substituted the former galleries.

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Interior

The Mosaics

The upper order of the interior is completely covered with bright mosaics containing gold, bronze, and the greatest variety of stones. The decorated surface is on the whole about 8000 m2. In the most ancient works, both Byzantine and Gothic influences can be recognized, as for example in the Saints from the 11th century between the windows of the apse. In the vault above is a mosaic with Christ Pantocrator. From the apse towards the entrance (from east to west) one can contemplate the history of Salvation in the domes: the Prophets, the Ascension and the Pentecost (Whitsun). The domes over the transept are called St John’s (stories of St John the Evangelist) and St Leonard’s (with other saints). In the vaults between the domes are represented episodes of Jesus’ life. As mentioned above, restorations and replacements were often necessary thereafter, and great painters such as Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, the Veronese), Jacopo Tintoretto and his son Domenico took part drawing the cartoons. Tiziano and the Padovanino prepared the cartoons for the sacristy, built in the late 1400s. Other remarkable mosaics decorate the Baptistery, the Mascoli Chapel, St Isidor Chapel and the Zen Chapel.

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The Nave

The presbytery

The eastern arm has a raised presbytery with a crypt beneath. The presbytery is separated by an iconostasis (altar screen, typical of Byzantine churches): this is formed by eight red marble columns crowned with a high Crucifix and statues by Pier Paolo and Jacobello Dalle Masegne, masterpiece of Gothic sculpture (late 14th century). On the right is the ambo from which the newly-elected doge appeared. Behind the iconostasis, marble banisters with Sansovino's bronze statues of the Evangelists and Paliari's of the Four Doctors mark the access to the high altar, which contains St Mark’s relics. Above the high altar is a canopy (“ciborium”) on columns decorated with remarkable relieves; the altarpiece is the famous Pala d'Oro (Golden Pall), a masterpiece of Byzantine craftsmanship, originally designed for an antependium. The choir stalls are embellished with inlaying by Fra Sebastiano Schiavone, and above them on both sides are three relieves by Sansovino. Behind the presbytery are the sacristy and a 15th century church consecrated to St Theodore (the first patron saint of Venice) where is displayed a painting (Child’s Adoration) by Giambattista Tiepolo.

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Pala d'Oro

More info about artworks here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark's_Basilica).

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San Pietro in Gessate (Milan, Italy)

San Pietro in Gessate is a church in Milan, northern Italy. Built in the 15th century, it is a noteworthy example of Gothic architecture.

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The architect was either Guiniforte Solari or his son Pietro Antonio. The church has a nave and two aisles, with square-plan, groin vaulted spans, flanked by two rows of chapels. Instead of the traditional Gothic pilasters, the naves are separated by Corinthian columns in granite, the sole indication in the church of the contemporary humanist revolution started in Florence by Brunelleschi and others.

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Portale

San Pietro in Gessate is important as the home to a series of important paintings of the Renaissance in Lombardy. Artists who worked here include Giovanni Donato Montorfano, Bernardino Butinone and Bernardo Zenale. The latter responsible for the impressive Histories of St.Ambrose in the Grifi Chapel (Cappella Grifi).

Cappella Grifi

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The gothic frescoes

The chapel has a notable tombstone statue of Ambrogio Grifi by Benedetto Briosco. In the early 16th century Vincenzo Foppa completed for this church his famous Deposition, which later acquired by the Museum of Berlin and lost during World War II. From 1514 is a fresco by Ambrogio Bergognone portraying the Funeral of St. Martin.

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Detail of the vault

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Santo Stefano Rotondo (Rome, Italy)

The Basilica of St. Stephen in the Round on the Celian Hill (Italian: Basilica di Santo Stefano al Monte Celio) is an ancient basilica in Rome, Italy. Commonly named Santo Stefano Rotondo, the church is the National church in Rome of Hungary dedicated to Saint Stephen and Saint Stephen of Hungary. The minor basilica is also the rectory church of the Pontifical Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum.

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Interior

Santo Stefano Rotondo in a late 19th century print.The walls of the church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. All painting has an inscription explaing the scene and the name of the emperor who ordered the executions, as well as quotations from the Bible. The paintings are somewhat morbid, if not gruesome and naturalistic depictions of torture and execution.

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Works of art

The altar was made by the Florentine artist Bernardo Rossellino in the 15th century. The painting in the apse shows Christ between two martyrs. The mosaic and marble decoration is from the period 523-530. One mosaic shows the martyrs St Primus and St Felicianus flanking a jewelled cross. There is a tablet recording the burial here of the Irish king Donough O'Brien of Cashel and Thomond, who died in Rome in 1064. An ancient chair of Pope Gregory the Great from around 580 is preserved here. The Chapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano has very interesting and rare mosaics from the 7th century. The chapel was built by Pope Theodore I who brought here the relics of the martyrs and buried them (together with the remains of his father).

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Mithraeum

Under the church there is a 2nd century mithraeum, related to the presence of the barracks of Roman soldiers in the neighbourhood. The cult of Mithras was especially popular among soldiers. The remains of Castra Peregrinorum, the baracks of the peregrini, officials detached for special service to the capital from the provincial armies, were found right under Santo Stefano Rotondo. The mihraeum belonged to Castra Peregrinorum but it was probably also attended by the soldiers of Cohors V Vigilum, whose barracks stood nearby on the other side of Via della Navicella. The mithraeum is currently being excavated. The remains of the Roman military barracks (from the Severan Age) and the mithraeum under the church remained closed from the public. A coloured marble bas-relief, "Mithras slaying the bull" from the 3rd century is today in Museo Nazionale Romano.

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Santa Maria Novella (Florence, Italy)

Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated just across the main railway station which shares its name. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The church, the adjoining cloister, and chapterhouse contain a store of art treasures and funerary monuments. Especially famous are frescoes by masters of Gothic and early Renaissance. They were financed through the generosity of the most important Florentine families, who ensured themselves of funerary chapels on consecrated ground.

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The façade by Leon Battista Alberti

On a commission from Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, a local textile merchant, Leone Battista Alberti designed the upper part of the inlaid black and white marble façade of the church (1456-1470). He was already famous as the architect of the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, but even more for his seminal treatise on architecture De Re Aedificatoria, based on the book De Architectura of the classical Roman writer Vitruvius. Alberti had also design the facade for the Rucellai Palace in Florence.

Interior

The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as a Latin cross and is divided into a nave, two aisles with stained-glass windows and a short transept. The large nave is 100 metres long and gives an impression of austerity. The stained-glass windows date from the 14th and 15th century, such as 15th century Madonna and Child and St. John and St. Philip (designed by Filippino Lippi), both in the Filippo Strozzi Chapel. The pulpit, commissioned by the Rucellai family in 1443, was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and executed by his adopted child Andrea Calvalcanti.

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The Nave and the Giotto Crucifix in the Apse

The Sacristy

The sacristy, at the end of the left aisle, was built as the Chapel of the Annunciation by the Cavalcanti family in 1380. Now it houses again, after a period of fourtain years of cleaning and renovation, the enormous painted Crucifix with the Madonna and John the Evangelist, an early work by Giotto. The sacristy is also embellished by a glazed terra cotta and a marble font, masterpieces by Giovanni della Robbia (1498). The cupboards were designed by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1593. The paintings on the wall are ascribed to Giorgio Vasari and some other comtemporary Florentine painters. The large Gothic window with three mullions at the back wall dates from 1386 and was based on cartoons by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini.

The Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity, situated almost halfway in the left aisle, is a pioneering early renaissance work of Masaccio, showing his new ideas about perspective and mathematical proportions. Its meaning for the art of painting can easily be compared by the importance of Brunelleschi for architecture and Donatello for sculpture.

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The Holy Trinity by Masaccio

The Filippo Strozzi Chapel

The Filippo Strozzi Chapel is situated on the right side of the main altar. The Strozzi Chapel was the place were the first tale of the Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio began, when seven ladies decided to leave the town, and flee from the Black Plague to the countryside. The series of frescoes from Filippino Lippi depict the life of Philip the Apostle and James the Apostle. They were completed in 1502.

The Spanish Chapel

The Spanish Chapel (or Cappellone degli Spagnoli) is the former chapterhouse of the monastery. The Spanish Chapel was decorated from 1365 to 1367 by Andrea Bonaiuti also known as Andrea da Firenze. The large fresco on the right wall depicts the Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church and of the Dominican order. It is especially interesting because in the background it shows a large pink building that may provide some insight into the original designs for the Duomo of Florence by Arnolfo di Cambio (before Brunelleschi's dome was built), although this interpretation is fantastical as the Duomo was never intended to be pink, nor to have the belltower at its back side.

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The Spanish Chapel

More info about artworks here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Maria_Novella).

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Monreale Cathedral (Monreale, Italy)

If you ever visit Sicily, you cannot miss this rare jewel, a wonderful fusion of Romanesque, Byzantine and Arab culture, the masterpiece of Norman art in Sicily and world-famous for the absolute beauty of the mosaic cycles that cover almost every inch of the interior. The Cathedral of Monreale is one of the greatest extant examples of Norman architecture in the world. It was begun in 1174 by William II, and in 1182 the church, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral. The church is a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily.

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Interior

The interior of the church is about 100 meters long by 40 meters wide. In the form of a basilica, it is divided by 9 monolithic columns on each side into 3 naves leading to a wide presbyterium and 3 apses. The 18 columns have each a different Corinthian capital. The original ceiling in carved and painted wood was destroyed in a fire in 1811 and reconstructed trying to reproduce the original, while the precious mosaic floor in white Taormina marble, the work of Baldassare Massa of Palermo, is still in its original 16th century form. The walls are covered in the lower part by later marble slates, while in the upper part is the most amazing work of art in this church, the 12th century mosaics, still in their original form. Along the right nave are the 12th century sarcophagus of Guglielmo I, and the sepulchre of Guglielmo II, remade in the 16th century. Always in this nave, is the Chapel of St. Benedict, a Renaissance work decorated with marble tiles, with low-relief sculptures, a work made in 1776 by Giovanni Marino; a high-relief on the altar representing the Glory of St. Benedict, made by Ignazio Marabitti in 1776. The left nave opens into the 17th century Crocifisso Chapel, and to the Treasure of the Cathedral, which preserves Gothic relic containers, and sacred items from the 13th to the 17th century.

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The Apse

The mosaics cycle

All the scenes of the mosaic are created against a background of yellow-gold tiles. There are a total of 130 individual mosaic scenes depicting biblical and other religious events. Made in the late 12th-early 13th centuries, the mosaics on the walls cover over 6.000 square mt, and represent the Old and New Testaments, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin. Along the central nave is the Genesis cycle, in the central apse are Christ and the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne, surrounded by apostles, saints and angels. On the two sides, over the royal and the episcopal thrones, there are mosaic scenes representing William crowned by Christ and again William offering the cathedral to the Virgin. The Old Testament is portrayed upon the walls of the central nave, starting from the Creation and ending with Jacob's Fight with the Angel. The mosaics on the side aisles illustrate the major events of the life of Jesus, from His birth to the Crucifixion, and include a cycle which portrays His miracles. Most of the mosaics are accompanied by written inscriptions in Latin or Greek.

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Interior

The Cloister

The entrance to the cloister is to the right of the facade. The cloister, made in the 12th century, is almost intact, and was included in a no more extant Benedictine abbey. It is a square courtyard with sides measuring 47 mt each, surrounded by 228 twin columns joined by sexti-acute arches which create a covered walkway all around the garden; the columns are decorated with mosaic tiles and, with a great variety of motifs including arabesques, knights, saints and Bible scenes, gargoyles. In the southern corner a 3-sided enclosure includes a small fountain in the form of a palm-tree. To the northern side is the ancient wall of the cathedral, with a portal and windows, all decorated with white stone and lava tiles. An archway to the right leads to the wonderful Belvedere, where is also an art gallery, the Galleria Civica "Giuseppe Sciantino" with contemporary and modern works of art.

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The Cloister

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Santa Maria in Domnica (Rome, Italy)

Santa Maria in Domnica (also known as Santa Maria alla Navicella) is a basilica church in Rome.

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History

The church was built in ancient times, close to the barracks of the 5th cohort of Vigiles. The church was built no later than the 7th century. Pope Paschal I, who is to be credited for the age of renovation and artistic splendour that took place in Rome in early 9th century, rebuilt the church in 818-822, providing it with a noteworthy mosaic decoration. The attribute "in Domnica" has been differently explained. One interpretation is the derivation from dominicum, which means "of the Lord", and by extension "church".

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View of interior

Another interpretation refers to the name of Cyriaca, a woman who lived close by, and whose name means "belonging to the Lord", Dominica in Latin. The attribute "alla Navicella" means "near the little ship", and refers to the Roman sculpture of a ship that has been placed in front of the church for a long time, turned into a fountain by Leo X. The Cardinal Deacon of the Titulus S. Mariae in Domnica is William Joseph Levada.

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The Nave

The apse mosaic

Pope Leo X renovated the church in 1513-14, Andrea Sansovino directing the works and including the facade portico with tuscan columns. The internal columns are recycled from an ancient temple and crowned with Corinthian capitals. The ceiling is frescoed by Perin del Vaga, based on designs of Giulio Romano. The apse mosaic from the 8th century depicts Christ, angels, and apostles, Moses and Elias, Virgin and child on throne, and Pasquale I in ginocchio. There are also frescoes by Lazzaro Baldi.

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The apse mosaic

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Abbazia di Pomposa (Emilia Romagna, Italy)

The abbey is certainly one of the most important historical places, and one of the most suggestive locations in Emilia Romagna. Once an island surrounded by the waters of the Adriatic sea, the Po di Volano and the Po di Goro rivers, today it is an enchanting historical and cultural site.

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History

The foundation of the church probably dates back to the 6th or 7th century. Archaeological vestiges state the presence of a religious building dedicated to Holy Mary, dating from the 7th-8th century, in the area now occupied by the left apsidiole of the basilica. The first historical evidence of the Benedictine monastery dates back to 874, when pope John VIII claimed his sovereign right over it against the Ravenna diocese. The Abbey reached the peak of its spiritual reputation and economic power during the 11th century: in this period the Pomposa buildings were enlarged and adorned on the will of the abbot Guido degli Strambiati from Ravenna. The church was reconsecrated in 1026, and the bell tower, the cloister and the Government Palace (Palazzo della Ragione) were built beginning from 1063. In the first centuries after the year One Thousand Pomposa owned lands, woods, saltworks and fishing valleys.

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Interior

The abbot extended his secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over a large region, and the abbey became a cultural centre of major importance: it was here that Pier Damiani wrote his works, that Dante and Giotto were hosted, that Guido Monaco invented the modern music notation before he moved to Arezzo. The abbey gave hospitality to popes and emperors, and in those years it already featured a well-known library. Pomposa remained an island until around 1250; then, the Po river, the source of the wealth and power of the abbey until the 13th century, changed its course, bringing about the slow and relentless decline of the monastery. The land turned into a swamp, floods were frequent and the monastic order knew a general decadence so that in the 14th century Pomposa was turned into a commendam and in1553 it was suppressed as an abbey. Finally the monks left the monastery in 1671, and moved to the new convent of St. Benedict in Ferrara. Today the church is under the eclesiastical jurisdiction of the archidiocese of Ferrara and Comacchio.

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The Nave

Architecture

The church architecture shares the features of the late basilicas of Ravenna, and it is the result of several additions and transformations: the interior, consisting of three aisles divided by two uninterrupted rows of columns, ends in an apse that has a semicircular shape inside, and pentagonal outside. The nave walls of the church preserve precious frescos of the 14th-century school of Vitale from Bologna, representing scenes from the Old Testament in the upper band, from the New Testament in the lower band and images of the Apocalypse in the spandrels between the arches; the apse vault shows Christ in glory surrounded by angels and saints. Also noteworthy are the other ornaments inside and outside the church: the fragments of the mosaic flooring, the elegant terracotta friezes, the stone relieves with ceramic bowls, the variously decorated ocula opened on the walls. In the Chapter-house are wonderful frescos of the Giotto school, representing the Crucifixion with saints; in the Refectory the Last Supper and the Miracle of St. Guy are portrayed, probably the most valuable series of paintings of the 14th-century school of Rimini.

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The Apse

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Lecce is not only the city of baroque :)

Abbazia di Santa Maria di Cerrate (Lecce, Italy)

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The Abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate is located in the country a few kilometres from Lecce. It was build around half of the 12th century as commissioned by Tancredi, Lord of Lecce. Over the years the building was rearranged several times, and today it shows typical decorations from Salento area, an arcade wing on the left hand side of the church and a well from the 16th century. Next to the Abbey, the Museum of Popular Traditions. Here, among the other finds, it is possible to admire panels with frescos from the aisles.

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External view

History

They Abbey was built by the Tancredi, a noble family from Lecce. The basiliane monks were the first ones who possessed the complex. When their order disappeared, the Abbey was taken over by the Holy See. It was then donated by Pope Clemente VII to the Ospedale degli Incurabili of Naples and eventually abandoned. The Turkish pirates plundered it in 1711. Only in 1965 it was restored by the Provincial Authorities of Lecce. Today it is the seat of the Museum of Popular Traditions.

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The Nave

Inside the church, remains of beautiful frescos dating back to the 13th century. From the architectonic features of the building it can be assumed that the Abbey dates back to the first half of the 12th century. The external decorations with thin pilasters and arches is typical from the Salento area. The arches of the complex date back to 13th century and it is supported by 24 columns with 24 capitals, all different in style and shape. In the middle of the complex is the church, isolated, with one nave and two aisles. The central nave is higher and wider. A richly engraved portal indicates the main entrance. Inside there are traces of frescos from the 13th century.

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Interior

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If you go to Pisa don't miss this amazing romanesque jewell, in the conuntryside just 5km far from the leaning tower.

San Piero a Grado (Pisa, Italy)

San Piero a Grado is a church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, in the eponymous frazione. The church is located where once was a now disappeared port of the Pisan Republic, where, according to the legend, St. Peter landed in Italy from Antiochia in 44 AD.

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Archaeological excavations have shown the presence of a Palaeo-Christian edifice in the area, built over civil Roman structures, which was later replaced by a larger church in the early Middle Ages (8th-9th centuries). The current construction, begun in the 10th century and renovated in the late 11th-early 12th centuries, has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles. Unusual is the presence of an apses the facade, probably built after the crumbling of the facade due to a flood of the Arno river. The entrance is on the northern side.

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The Nave

The exterior, made of stone of different provenance, is marked by pilaster strips and arches over which are precious ceramic basins (the originals are in the National Museum of St. Matthew in Pisa) of Islamic, Majorca and Sicilian manufacture decorated with geometrical and figurative motifs (10th-11th centuries). The 12th century bell tower was destroyed in 1944. Only the base has been rebuilt. The large and solemn interior, with truss ceiling, is divided into a nave and two aisles by antique columns with classical capitals. In the western part is a Gothic ciborium (early 15th century) which marks the place where Peter would pray for the first time.

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The Nave (other side)

On the walls of the nave is a large fresco cycle, recently restored, by the Lucchese Deodato Orlandi (early 14th century), which was commissioned by the Caetani family for the 1300 jubilee. In the lower part are Portraits of Popes, from St. Peter to John XVIII (1303); the intermediate portion has thirty panels with Histories of St. Peter's Life (as well of those of St. Paul, Constantine and St. Sylvester), similar to those in the Old St. Peter's Basilica and to Cimabue's work at San Francesco in Assisi. In the upper area are portrayed the Walls of the Heaven City, largely restored in the following centuries. On the high altar is a wooden crucifix from the 17th century.

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Details

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Basilica di San Francesco (Arezzo, Italy)

The Basilica of San Francesco is a late Medieval church in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. It is especially renowned for housing the Legends of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca, one of the most important fresco cycle of early Renaissance.

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San Francesco is the second church built by the Franciscans in Arezzo, an earlier church being located outside the city walls and destroyed during the Occupation. The building work on San Francesco was begun around 1290. The decoration of its façade was never realised. The interior presents as a large church of simple unadorned design with a wide single nave, flanked on the left side by some chapels and, on the right side, by some niches. The tall groin-vaulted chancel is of square plan. Beneath the church is a smaller Chiesa inferiore or "Lower Church" as at Assisi, with a nave and two aisles, now used as exhibition hall.

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Interior

ArtWorks

At the chancel entrance is suspended a very large painted rood crucifix by one Master of San Francesco, a contemporary of Cimabue. It also contains a Maesta or "Madonna in Majesty" by Guido da Siena. The walls and particularly the niches on the right have some fresco decoration, which dates in part to the 14th century. The Cappella Maggiore, (Major Chapel or chancel) houses one of the masterworks of Italian Early Renaissance, a fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca depicting the Legend of the True Cross.

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The Legend of the True Cross cycle

The frescoes of Legend of the True Cross

The painting of the chancel began with a commission by the Aretine family Bicci, who called the painter Bicci di Lorenzo to paint the large cross-vault. In 1452, at Bicci's death, only the four Evangelists had been painted in the vault, as well as the triumphal arch with the Last Judgement and two Doctors of the Church. Piero della Francesca was called in to complete the work. According to a document, he did so in two stages, the works halted during 1458-1459, and completed in 1466. The frescoes occupy three levels on the side walls and the eastern wall, surrounding a large window. The theme of the fresco cycle is the from the Golden Legend by Jacopo da Varagine. Piero della Francesca did not follow a chronological order, preferring to concentrate himself in the creation of symmetrical correspondences between the various scenes.

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The frescoes of Legend of the True Cross

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Chiesa di Orsanmichele (Florence, Italy)

Located on the Via Calzaiuoli, in Florence, the church was originally built as a grain market[1] in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione.

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Between 1380 and 1404 it was converted into a church used as the chapel of Florence's powerful craft and trade guilds. On the ground floor of the square building are the 13th century arches that originally formed the loggia of the grain market. The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city's municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege. Late in the 14th century, the guilds were charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to embellish the facades of the church. The sculptures seen today are copies, the originals having been removed to museums.

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The statues

ArtWorks

The facades held 14 architecturally designed external niches, which were filled from 1399 to around 1430. The three richest guilds opted to make their figures in the far more costly bronze, which cost approximately ten times the amount of the stone figures. Inside the church is Andrea Orcagna's bejeweled Gothic Tabernacle (1355-59) encasing a repainting by Bernardo Daddi's of an older icon of the 'Madonna and Child'.

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Tabernacolo dell'Orcagna

Orsanmichele's statuary is a relic of the fierce devotion and pride of Florentine trades, and a reminder that great art often arises out of a competitive climate. Each trade hoped to outdo the other in commissioning original, groundbreaking sculptures for public display on Florence's most important street, and the artists hired and materials used (especially bronze) indicate the importance that was placed on this site. Today, all of the original sculptures have been removed and replaced with modern duplicates to protect them from the elements and vandalism. The originals mainly reside in the museum of Orsanmichele, which occupies the upper floor of the church, although the museum is indefinitely closed as of early 2007. Two works by Donatello are in other Florentine museums: St. George and its niche are in the Bargello, and St. Louis of Toulouse is in the museum of the Basilica di Santa Croce.

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Interior

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Duomo di Arezzo (Arezzo, Italy)

Arezzo Cathedral (Cattedrale di Arezzo, Cattedrale di Ss. Donato e Pietro) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy.

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It was the seat of the Bishop of Arezzo from the 3rd century until 1986, and from 1986 onwards of the present Bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro. The construction of the Cathedral of Arezzo began around 1278, but spanned various epochs, indeed lasting until the early 16th century.

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The Apse

The facade which had remained unfinished in the 15th century, was rebuilt in the 20th century in the neo-Gothic style on a design by Dante Viviani. Three stone measures of reference dating to the 13th century are walled on the south wall.

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Mary Magdalene (Piero della Francesca)

Mary Magdalene

The interior is a fine example of Gothic architecture, and abounds in works of art of great value. It contains fine works of art. The mani masterpiece is certainly La Maddalena by Piero della Francesca, one of the artist's most beautiful figure. She appears to be portrayed as being pregnant.

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Details of the frescoes

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Sant'Agostino (Rome, Italy)

Sant'Agostino is a church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. It is one of the first Roman churches built during the Renaissance.

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The façade

The construction was funded by Guillaume d'Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen and Papal Chancellor. The façade was built up in 1483 by Giacomo di Pietrasanta, using marble taken from Colosseum. It is a fine, plain work of the early Renaissance style.

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The interior

The Caravaggio painting and the Raphael Isaiah

The most famous work of art presently in the church is the Madonna di Loreto, an important Baroque painting by Caravaggio. The church also contains a Guercino canvas of Saints Augustine, John the Evangelist and Hyeronimus; a fresco of Prophet Isaiah by Raphael; and the statues of Madonna col Bambino, by Andrea Sansovino and of Madonna del Parto by his pupil, Jacopo Sansovino. The latter sculpture is reputed by tradition to work miracles and was, according to a legend, based on an ancient statue of Agrippina holding Nero in her arms.

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Caravaggio, Madonna di Loreto (first chapel on the left)

In 1616, the 17th-century Baroque artist Giovanni Lanfranco decorated the Buongiovanni Chapel (in the left transept) with three canvasses and a ceiling fresco of the Assumption. The church also houses Melchiorre Caffà's sculpture St Thomas of Villanova Distributing Alms, completed by his mentor Ercole Ferrata. Pietro Bracci designed and sculpted the polychromatic tomb of Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali (1741). The church contains the tomb of Saint Monica, mother of St. Augustine, and that of Fiammetta, lover of Cesare Borgia and a famous cortigiana.

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Raphael, The Prophet Isaiah (fresco)

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Duomo di Sant'Emidio (Ascoli Piceno, Italy)

Founded on the site of an ancient basilica, some historians believe it to have been erected on the ruins of the Roman Forum, whose traces can be seen at the foot of the apses and in the transept; others still on the remains of a temple devoted to Ercole. The Cathedral is a construction which has been refashioned many times, the result of continuous architectural changes. The most ancient parts are the cross nave and the domed presbitery with three apses, reputed to be of the eighth century.

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The construction of the spacious crypt, dating back to 1100, involved the elevation of the entire presbiterial floor. In the right aisle is the Chapel of Santissimo Sacramento, dating to the first half of last century, made by Agostino Cappelli and Ignazio Cantalamessa. If the altar is adorned by a precious tabernacle of 1500 in golden painted wood, of uncertain attribution, as altar-piece we find the renowed Polittico by Carlo Crivelli (1430-1500), a distemper on a wooden board, in a valuable original Gothic frame. It was donated to the Cathedral by the bishop Caffarelli after having commissioned it to Crivelli in 1472. The big Polittico, cm. 364x280, represents Madonna in trono col Bambino in the centre, Santi Pietro, Giovanni, Paolo, Emidio on the sides. In the centre of the superior parts is Pietà, on the sides are Santa Caterina, San Girolamo, San Giorgio e Sant'Orsola. On the altar-step are Redentore benedicente e dieci Apostoli.

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Interior

The Polittico has recently undergone a restoration that has given it back its original beauty. Of considerable historical and artistic importance is Paliotto, a frontal embossed in silver foil, of the fourteenth century, put on the altar of the same Chapel. The twenty-seven panels representing the main episodes of Jesus' life are considered to be the most important pre-Renaissance sacred work of art. The entrance to Sacristy is to the right of transept, constructed in 1420 with architraved cross vault. It conserves sumptuous furniture and works, amongst which a Bancone in walnut with 14 doors, splendid and finely decorated, dated and signed by Moys d'Antuerpia 1565; probably by the same artist is another Armadio in walnut with four doors, friezed with coats of arms in relief; other two Baroque Armadi can be seen and some canvases by Lodovico Trasi (1634-1694) and Andrea da Caldarola.

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The Vault

To the right of presbitery is the Chapel of Santissimo Crocefisso, which bears an image much venerated in the fifteenth century. To the left of presbitery is the Chapel of Madonna delle Grazie, on whose polychrome marble altar is a Renaissance tabernacle. In the centre of the niche is the miraculous Madonna delle Grazie, co-patron of the city and diocese. Set in a Baroque frame in gilded wood, it's a work of Pietro Alemanno's. In the central tribune is the wooden Choir, made up of forty stalls divided into two rows: twenty-four in the superior one and sixteen in the lower, all decorated with delicate carvings of the fifteenth century. It's Giovanni di Matteo and his son Paolino d'Ascoli's masterpiece. Another notable work of carving is the Pulpit, set on the third pillar, carried out by Scipione Paris from Matelica (1611).

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Polittico di Carlo Crivelli

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Basilica di Santa Croce (Lecce, Italy)

Basilica di Santa Croce (Italian, Church of the Holy Cross) is a Baroque church in Lecce, Apulia, Italy, completed in 1695.

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Walter VI of Brienne had founded in the current church's location a monastery in the 14th century. In 1549 a new church was begun, using, among the others, houses from Jews who had been ousted from Lecce in 1510. The construction dragged on for two centuries: in 1582 the lower façade had been finished, while the dome was completed in 1590. The portals were added starting from 1606, under the direction of Francesco Antonio Zimbalo. The church was completed by his successors Cesare Penna (upper façade and the rose window) and Giuseppe Zimbalo (decoration of the upper façade).

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The façade

Exterior

The church has a richly decorated façade, with six smooth columns supporting an entablature, with animals, grotesque figures and vegetables, and has a large rose window. The main portal as a pair of Corinthian columns and the coats of arms of Philip III of Spain, Mary of Enghien and Walter VI of Brienne, while on the side portals are those of the Celestines. Several atlantes would represent the Turk prisoners made by the Christian League at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). The animals under the balaustrade would symbolize the Christian powers which participated in the battle: the dragon was the symbol of the Boncompagni, family of Pope Gregory XVI; the griffon the Republic of Genoa, Hercules the Grand Duke of Tuscany and so on.

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The Altar

Interior
The interior, on the Latin cross plan, had originally a nave and four aisles, two of which were turned into side chapels in the 18th century. The church has seventeen altars: the main one has a decorated portal with the coat of arms of the Adorni family, whose tombs were inside the basilica. Notable is also that of St. Francis of Paola, a Baroque piece of art by Francesco Antonio Zimbalo. The nave has a rich wooden caisson ceiling. Paintings include a Tinity by Gianserio Strafella, St. Anthony of Padua by Oronzo Tiso and The Adoration of the Shepherd by Giovan Battista Lama.

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Interior

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Brancacci Chapel - Santa Maria del Carmine (Florence, Italy)

The Brancacci Chapel is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It is called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period.

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Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Pietro Brancacci and begun in 1386. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel. The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel.

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Masolino's associate, 21 year old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27. Portions of the chapel were completed later by Filippino Lippi. Unfortunately during the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.

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Masaccio's application of scientific perspective, unified lighting, use of chiaroscuro and skill in rendering the figures naturalistically established new traditions in Renaissance Florence that some scholars credit with helping to found the new Renaissance style. The young Michelangelo was one of the many artists who received his artistic training by copying Masaccio's work in the chapel. The chapel was also the site of an assault on Michelangelo by rival sculptor Pietro Torrigiano, who resented Michelangelo's critical remarks about his draughtsmanship. He punched the artist so severely that he "crushed his nose like a biscuit" (according to Benvenuto Cellini), which deformed Michelangelo's face into that of a boxer's.

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All info and pictures of frescoes here (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_Brancacci).

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Basilica della Ss. Trinità di Saccargia (Sardinia, Italy)

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The Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia (English: "Basilica of the Holy Trinity of Saccargia") is a church in the comune of Codrongianos, northern Sardinia, Italy. It is the most important Romanesque site in the island. The construction is entirely in local stone (black basalt and white limestone), with a typical appearance of Tuscan Romanesque style.

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The church was finished in 1116 over the ruins of a pre-existing monastery, and consecrated on October 5 of the same year. Its construction was ordered by the giudice (duke) of Torres. It was entrusted to Camaldolese monks who here founded an abbey. It was later enlarged in Pisane style, including the addition of the tall bell tower.

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The portico on the façade is also probably a late addition, and is attributed to workers from Lucca. The church was abandoned in the 16th century, until it was restored and reopened in the early 20th century.

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Chiesa di San Pietro (Portovenere, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

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Portovenere (sometimes, in English, Porto Venere) is a town and comune (municipality) located on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. It comprises the three villages of Fezzano, Le Grazie and Portovenere, and the three islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto. In 1997 Portovenere and the villages of Cinque Terre were designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

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The Church

The ancient Portus Veneris is believed to date back to at least the middle of the first century BCE. It has been said that the name refers to a temple to the goddess Venus which was sited on the promontory where the church of Peter the Apostle now stands. The name has also been linked to that of the hermit Saint Venerius. In Roman times the city was essentially a fishing community. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Portovenere became the base of the Byzantine fleet in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, but was destroyed by the Lombards in 643 CE. Later, it was a frequent target of Saracen raids. First indications of the existence of a castle date from 1113, and in 1161 the walls were erected. Portovenere became a fiefdom of a family from Vezzano before passing to Genoa in the early twelfth century.

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View 360°

St. Peter

In 1494, it suffered a devastating bombardment from the Aragonese fleet during their war with Genoa: subsequently the old part of the town declined in importance, giving way to the development of the Borgo Nuovo ("New District"), which had existed from 1139 and is centred on the church of St. Peter. The Gothic church of St. Peter, consecrated in 1198. It was built over a pre-existing fifth century Palaeo-Christian church, which had rectangular plan and semicircular apse. The new part, from the thirteenth century, is marked externally by white and black stripes. The little church, with its unique outline, stands out against the sky with the impressive limestone cliffs of the Muzzerone in the background. From there you have a unique view of the fortress-houses which make up the seafront of Porto Venere.

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Interior

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Santa Maria dei Miracoli (Venice, Italy)

IMHO one of the highest masterpieces of italian renaissance architecture

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Santa Maria dei Miracoli is a church in the sestiere of Cannaregio, in Venice, Italy. Also known as the "marble church", it is one of the best examples of the early Venetian Renaissance including colored marble, a false colonnade on the exterior walls (pilasters), and a semicircular pediment. The main altar is reached by a series of steps. The circular facade windows recall Donato Bramante's churches in Milan.

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Exterior view from Campo dei Miracoli

Built between 1481 and 1489 by Pietro Lombardo to house a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary. The plans for the church were expanded in 1484 to include the construction of a new convent for nuns of St. Clare to the east. The convent was connected to the gallery of the church by an enclosed walkway that was later destroyed.

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Interior

The interior is enclosed by a wide barrel vault, with a single nave. The naive is dominated by an ornamental marble stair rising between two pulpets, with statues by Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria and Nicolò di Pietro. The vaulted ceiling is divided in fifty coffers decorated with paintings of the prophets's faces, a work by Girolamo Pennacchi's brother: Vincenzo dalle Destre and Lattanzio da Rimini.

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The chorus

More info here (http://www.savevenice.org/site/pp.asp?c=9eIHKWMHF&b=67633).

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Santa Maria della Catena (Palermo, Italy)

This is a mix of Catalan Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Don't you see some likeness with the gothic church of San Vicente in Avila? :)

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The Church of Santa Maria della Catena (St. Mary's of the Chain) takes its name from the huge chain that was strung across the water here to bar entrance to the "Cala," the interior part of Palermo's harbor.

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Interior

This practice originated during the Middle Ages, when raids by Turkish corsairs and other assorted pirates were not uncommon. The Church was erected in the late 1400s, designed by Matteo Carnelivari in what is best described as a mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance styles.

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The Apse

The church's main entrance, reached by a flight of wide steps, has a triple arched portico built in the Renaissance style. Inside, there are sculptures both from the 1400s and the Renaissance periods. The Church is only open on Sundays for services.

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The Vault

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Gerace Cathedral (Gerace, Italy)

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The cathedral in Gerace is among the most important buildings in Calabria. Its profile dominates the town. The cathedral was consecrated in 1045 and is 76 metres in length and 26 metres wide. Its ground plan is a Latin cross and it rests on the foundations of an earlier building – possibly from the Basilan monastic order.

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The Nave

It is divided into three aisles with impressive columns, which come from various Greek and Roman temples and villas which were found in the area. All the columns are different to symbolise that the cathedral and Gerace parish were the most important in the area and could unify the area and its population.

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Sepolcro di Nicola Palizzi

Its structure is Romanesque in its simplicity and purity. However, it is easy to find the Norman traces which decorate the lines with elegance and power. The cathedral’s altars show signs of Baroque style.

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The Crypt

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Santa Caterina (Palermo, Italy)

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Santa Caterina (St, Catherine) is another very nice example of what is known as Sicilian Baroque, always elegant and not manierist. It was one of the buildings of the enclosure sisters abbey. Look at the likeness between this church and the baroque church of Chiesa del Gesù (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=35331132&postcount=152) :)

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The Dome

Although begun in 1566, most of the internal decoration of Santa Caterina in Palermo dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. A powerful example of Sicilian Baroque, it overwhelms the senses with colors, textures, sculpture and marble inlay. There are illusionistic ceiling frescoes (18th century) by Filippo Randazzo in the nave and Vito d'Anna in the dome.

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The Nave

The church is flanked by Piazza Pretorio, which is dominated by the huge Mannerist Fontana Pretorio (1544), currently being restored.

You can find more pictures of the interior here (http://www.palermoweb.com/cittadelsole/monumenti/chiesa_santa_caterina.htm) and here (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/palermo-santa-caterina.htm).

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Details of interior

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edit :)

San Giovanni a Carbonara (Naples, Italy)

San Giovanni a Carbonara is a church in Naples, southern Italy.

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The church

It is located at the northern end of via Carbonara, just outside what used to be the eastern wall of the old city. The name carbonara (meaning "coal-carrier") was given to this site allocated for the collection and burning of refuse outside the city walls in the Middle Ages. The monastery/church complex of San Giovanni was founded by the Augustinians in 1343. The church was completed in the early 15th century under King Ladislas of Durazzo, who turned the church into a Pantheon-like tribute to the last of the Angevin rulers of Naples.

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Interior

ArtWorks

It was expanded over the course of the following three centures and contains sculptures and artwork of considerable interest, including Ladislas' tomb order by his daughter Qeen Joan II to Andrea Ciccione, the 15th century chapels of Caracciolo del Sole, with notable frescoes by Perinetto da Benevento and Leonardo da Besozzo, also housing the notewhorty sepulchre of Sergianni Caracciolo also by Ciccione, and Caracciolo di Vico (1516), the Miroballo, di Somma and Seripando Chapels, the latter home of a Crucifixion by Giorgio Vasari.

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The monumental Ladislas' tomb

The current façade was constructed in 1707 or 1708 by Ferdinando Sanfelice, but maintaing the notable Gothic portal with a frescoed lunette.

The interior is on the Latin Cross plan, with a rectangular nave. The main altar is from 1746.

The church was restored in 1856, being severely damaged by Allied bombardments in 1943.

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The magnificient Sepulchre of Sergianni Caracciolo

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southern Churches are absolutely stunning

I second that.

Monastero di Santa Chiara (Naples, Italy)

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The Monastery

The Monastero (Basilica) di Santa Chiara is a religious complex in Naples, southern Italy, that includes the Church of Santa Chiara, a monastery, tombs and an archeological museum. The monastery was built in 1310-1340 by King Robert of Naples, who is also buried in the complex. The place chosen was annexed to the western walls. The original church was in traditional Provençal-Gothic style, but was restored in the 17th-18th century in Baroque style by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.

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Interior

After the edifice was almost entirely destroyed by a fire after the Allied bombings during World War II, it was brought back to the alleged original state by a disputed restoration, which was completed in 1953. The sober façade has a massive appearance, gentled by the large central rose-window. The bell tower, separated from the main edifice, was begun in 1328 but was completed only in Renaissance times. The simple interior houses, behind the high altar, the tomb of King Robert and, in the side chapels, those of the Bourbon king of Naples, Francis II and his consort Marie Sophie, as well as of Queen Maria Cristina of Savoy (wife of Charles Felix of Sardinia) and of the national hero Salvo d'Acquisto (a carabiniere who sacrificed his own life to save the lives of 22 civilian hostages at the time of the Nazi occupation).

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Chiostro delle Clarisse

Chiostro delle Clarisse

The cloister, realized by Domenico Vaccaro, is an extraordinary and unique example of the use of the maiolica and goes back to 1739 and it is part of the plan of radicals restaurations regarding the whole monastic complex of S. Chiara. The cloister (long 82,30 ms and large 78,30 ms) was given to the Clarisses who divided the monastery with the Franciscan. At north of the cloister there was the cemetery to which the tradition associes an ancient legenda. The bombardment of August 4 th 1943 destroyed a big part of the complex, today that visible is fruit of the restaurations happened in the postwar period. The cloister was transformed in 1742 by Vaccaro with the addition of precious majolica tiles in Rococò style. The Nuns' Choir houses fragments of frescoes by Giotto. The museum houses information on the history of the church, archaeological findings, remains of destroyed parts of the interior and other collections

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Chiostro delle Clarisse

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Even if it's forbidden to take photos of the interior, I found some interesting pictures on google.

Lower Basilica - Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi (Assisi, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi in Assisi, Italy, is the burial place of St. Francis and the mother church of the Franciscan Order. It is a World Heritage Site and one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in Italy. The basilica, which was begun in 1228, is built into the side of a hill and comprises two churches known as the Upper Church and the Lower Church, and a crypt where the remains of the saint are interred. With its accompanying friary, the basilica is a distinctive landmark to those approaching Assisi.

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Interior & frescoes

The interior of the Upper Church is important as an early example of the Gothic style in Italy. The Upper and Lower Churches are decorated with frescoes by numerous late medieval painters from the Roman and Tuscan schools, and include works by Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and possibly Pietro Cavallini. The range and quality of the works gives the basilica a unique importance in demonstrating the development of Italian art of this period. The doors are surmounted by a large rose window, flanked by two smaller ones, called "the eye of the most beautiful church in the world". The lower basilica consists of a central nave with several side chapels with semi-circular arches. The nave is decorated with the oldest frescoes in the church by an unknown artist, called Maestro di San Francesco. They feature five scenes from the Passion of Christ on the right side, while on the left side equally five scenes from the Life of St. Francis. By this juxtaposition, the Franciscans wanted to contribute to the idea of their founder as a second Christ.

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Interior

They are connected by a low blue-painted ceiling decorated with golden stars. Most images on the lower walls have decayed to leave almost no trace, except on the right wall fragments of Virgin and Child with an Angel by Cimabue. These frescoes, executed in tempera on dry plaster, were completed about 1260-1263. They are considered by many as the best examples of Tuscan wall paintings prior to Cimabue. As the popularity of this church increased, side chapels for noble families were added between 1270 and 1350, destroying the frescoes on the opened walls. The first chapel on the left is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. It was built by Cardinal da Montefiore, and was decorated between 1317 and 1319 with ten frescoes depicting his life by Simone Martini. Simone Martini also painted a triptych with the Madonna and Child with Two Hungarian Royal Saints and a row of five attendant saints in St. Elizabeth Chapel ( southern arm of the transept).

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Giotto, Simone Martini, Cimabue

These are amongst the greatest works of Simone Martini and the finest examples of 14th century painting. The use of lead white has over the years darkened several passages in these works. On the transept wall Cimabue painted his most famous work "Our Lady enthroned and Saint Francis" (1280). This is probably the nearest likeness to St. Francis. This static painting in Gothic style is in stark contrast with the lively frescoes of Giotto. The left transept was decorated by the Sienese painter Pietro Lorenzetti and his workshop between 1315 and 1330 (attributed by Vasari Pietro Lorenzetti and also (wrongly) to Giotto and Puccio Capanna). This cycle of tempera frescoes are his masterworks. They depict six scenes from the Passion of Christ. The fresco of Deposition of the Cross is especially emotional. There were about 330 work-stages needed to complete this cycle.

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Giotto frescoes

More info here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Francesco_d%27Assisi).

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Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures.

Upper Basilica - Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi (Assisi, Italy)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre

The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi in Assisi, Italy, is the burial place of St. Francis and the mother church of the Franciscan Order. It is a World Heritage Site and one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in Italy. The basilica, which was begun in 1228, is built into the side of a hill and comprises two churches known as the Upper Church and the Lower Church, and a crypt where the remains of the saint are interred. With its accompanying friary, the basilica is a distinctive landmark to those approaching Assisi.

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Interior & artworks

This bright and spacious basilica consists of a single four-bay nave with cross-vaulted ceiling bordered with patterns of crosses and leaves, a transept and a polygonal apse. The four ribbed vaults are decorated alternately with golden stars on a blue background and paintings. The west end of the transept and the apse have been decorated with many frescoes by Cimabue and his workshop (starting in c. 1280). The magnificent Crucifixion, with St. Francis on his knees at the foot of the Cross, stresses again the veneration of the Passion of Christ by St. Francis. Sadly, the frescoes of Cimabue soon suffered from damp and decay. Due to the use of lead oxide in his colours and to the fact that the colours were applied when the plaster was no longer fresh, they have deteriorated and have been reduced to photographic negatives.

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The Nave

Prior to him there had been some decorations in the upper right hand section of the transept by an (anonymous) Northern Master, probably an English artist (1267-1270). He realized the two lunettes and the roundels on the west wall with paintings of the Angel and the Apostles. Another (anonymous) master, the Roman Master, painted the Isaiah and the David and the remainder of the wall under the eastern lunette. The upper part on both sides of the nave, badly damaged by the earthquake of 1997, was decorated in two rows with in total 32 scenes from the Old Testament (starting with Creation of the World and ending with Joseph forgives his brothers) and the New Testament (from the Annunciation to The Women at the Tomb), while the upper register of the entrance wall is covered with two frescoes Pentecost and Ascension of Jesus. Since it took about six months to paint one bay of the nave, different Roman and Tuscan masters, followers of Cimabue, have performed this series of scenes such as Giacomo, Jacopo Torriti and Pietro Cavallini.

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Interior

The two frescoes of the life of Isaac (Isaac blesses Jacob and Esau in front of Isaac) in the middle register of the third bay, are traditionally ascribed to the young Giotto (1290-1295) (previously wrongly ascribed to Cimabue by Vasari). But even this has been controversial. Many critics esteem these the work of the anonymous Isaac Master and his workshop. Deducing from stylistic details, attesting to his Roman background, some think that the Isaac Master may have been Pietro Cavallini or a follower. But the most important decorations are the series of 28 frescoes ascribed to the young Giotto along the lower part of the nave. Each bay contains three frescoes above the dado on each side of the nave, two frescoes in the east galleries beside the entrance, and two more on the entrance wall. Giotto used the Legenda Maior, the biography of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure (1266) to reconstruct the major events in the life of St. Francis. The prototype for this cycle may have been the (now lost) St Francis cycle by Pietro Cavallini in the church San Francesco a Ripa in Rome. The paintings are so vivid, as if Giotto had been a witness to these events.

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The frescoes

More info here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Francesco_d%27Assisi).

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Casertavecchia Cathedral (Casertavecchia, Italy)

Casertavecchia, a frazione of Caserta, is an Italian medieval village that lies at the foot of the Tifatini Mountains located 10 km north-east of the City of Caserta at an altitude of approximately 401 meters. Its name translated from Italian means "Old Caserta."

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The origins of Casertavecchia are uncertain, but according to the Benedictine monk, Erchempert, in Ystoriola Langobardorum Beneventi degentium, the village was founded in 861 AD. The previous Roman town was called "Casam Irtam" (from the Latin "home village located above"). The village was initially conquered and ruled by the Lombards. Subsequent Saracen depredations led to the fortified mountain village becoming the Bishopric for the province.

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The facade

The Cathedral

Under Norman domination, the village began the construction of its Cathedral, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. It was built in built in 1100. Inside there are many valuable example of Romanesque style and we can admire some sculpture of the late middle Ages.

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The interior

The Aragons conquered the village in 1442 which began its long and gradual decline in importance. Eventually, Casertavecchia would host only the local seminary and the Bishop's seat. Under the rule of the Bourbons, major construction began taking place in the city of Caserta. By 1842 political rule had entirely moved to the great palace in the larger city, with the Casertan diocese finally relocating from Casertavecchia to Caserta.

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The tomb

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Abbazia di San Nazzaro e Celso (San Nazzaro Sesia, Italy)

San Nazzaro Sesia is a municipality in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km northeast of Turin and about 15 km west of Novara.

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The Abbey

This is one of the most significant abbeys in northern Italy. It lies in the middle of rice-fields. It was founded in the 11th century on the place of an old Benedictine monastery, rebuilt in the 12th century and again in the 15th century, when it was also fortified. It keeps the two-storey atrium and a Romanesque belfry.

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The Gothic frescoes

The Gothic frescoes

The Gothic church was rebuilt in the 15th century. The front is richly decorated with terracotta frames. The cloister, dating to the 15th century, is decorated with terracotta ornaments and keeps an interesting cycle of late gothic frescos of the 15th century representing episodes of St. Benedict.

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Trittico

The complex is surrounded by high, defensive walls with a round tower at each corner and a watch tower at the entrance. The edge of the cloister balcony is decorated in terracotta. The sides of the porch are decorated with a very interesting cycle of late fifteenth-century frescoes depicting scenes from the life of St Benedict.

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The Cloister

More pictures of the frescoes here (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/St._Nazzaro_and_Celso_Abbey).

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San Giorgio Martire (Petrelle Tifernina, Italy)

Petrella Tifernina is a municipality in the Province of Campobasso in the Italian region Molise, located about 13 km north of Campobasso.

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The Church

Situated in the old town centre of Petrella Tifernina, the church of St George the Martyr is an apsidal building with three naves divided by composite pillars bearing capitals ornamented with geometric, vegetal and figured patterns.

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According to an inscription in the lunette on the front portal, which also bears the name of a Master Elpidio, the church was built at the beginning of the 13th century. The richly decorated front and side portals are set off by the beautiful facing made of large well-squared ashlars.

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The upper part of the façade presents a row of small arches featuring human and animal protomes, as well as a large window with an arched lintel decorated with vegetal patterns. A wide and highly ornamented portal with tympanum opens in the lower part, with a sculptured lunette depicting the vicissitudes of the prophet Jonas. The style of the relief of these decorations recalls that of the church of St Mary della Strada in Matrice.

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Quite unknown, but absolutely stunning!

Chiesa di Santo Stefano (Venice, Italy)

The Chiesa di Santo Stefano (Church of St. Stephen) is a large church at the northern end of the Campo Santo Stefano in Venice. It was founded in the 13th century, rebuilt in the 14th century and altered again early in the 15th century, when the fine gothic doorway and ship's keel roof were added.

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Santo Stefano is parish church of one of the parishes in the Vicariate of San Marco-Castello. The other churches of the parish are San Samuele, San Maurizio, San Vidal and the Oratorio di San Angelo degli Zoppi. The tall interior is also Gothic and has three apses.

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The ceiling

Works of art

- Antonio Canova (stele commemorating Giovanni Falier in the baptistery)
- Pietro Lombardo (tomb of Giacomo Surian)
- Tullio Lombardo (two marble statuettes in the sacristy (attributed))
- Tintoretto (The Agony in the Garden, The Last Supper and The Washing of the Disciples' Feet, all in the sacristy)
- Paolo Veneziano (painted Crucifix in the sacristy)
- Bartolomeo Vivarini (St Lawrence and St Nicholas of Bari in the sacristy)

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The Apse

Funerary monuments

- Doge Andrea Contarini (d.1382)
- Giovanni Falier
- Francesco Morosini
- Giacomo Surian
- Giovanni Gabrieli (d. 1612) Great Venetian composer and organist at San Marco

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The elegant Nave

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Bitonto Cathedral (Bitonto, Italy)

Bitonto Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Bitonto (Apulia, Italy).

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The cathedral, dedicated to Saint Valentine, was the seat of the small Bishopric of Bitonto from the bishopric's foundation, believed to be in the 8th century, until 1818, when it was combined with the neigbouring Diocese of Ruvo to form the Diocese of Ruvo e Bitonto. This was separated again in 1982, and the Diocese of Bitonto, with Bitonto Cathedral as its seat, was briefly revived, but was combined with the Archdiocese of Bari in 1986 to form the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, in which Bitonto Cathedral is now a co-cathedral.

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The Nave

The remains of a palaeochristian church, which predates by some centuries the establishment of the bishopric, have been discovered underneath the present building. The existing church however is a Romanesque building of the late 11th-12th centuries, influenced by the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari.

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The frescoes

The west front is divided into three parts and has three portals (the central one of which is sculpted with plant motifs and scenes from the Old Testament), four mullioned windows and a rose window flanked by sculptures of animals supported by small columns. The interior has a nave and two aisles, and is also notable for its sculpture. The main artwork is the marble ambo, a combined pulpit and lectern, of 1229, a masterpiece of medieval Apulian stonecarving. In the crypt is the well-known tile of a griffin, a survival from the predecessor church building.

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The marble ambo

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Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (Genoa, Italy)

The Cathedral of St. Lawrence (Italian: Cattedrale di San Lorenzo) is a church in the Italian city of Genoa, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Genoa.

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The cathedral was founded probably in the 5th or 6th century AD, devoted to St. Sirus, bishop of Genoa. Excavations under the pavement and in the area in front of today's façade have brought to light walls and pavements of Roman age as well as pre-Christian sarcophagi, suggesting the existence of a cemetery in the site. Later a church devoted to the Twelve Apostles was built, which was in turn flanked and replaced by a new cathedral dedicated to St. Lawrence martyr, in Romanesque style. Money came from the successful enterprises of the Genoese fleets in the Crusades.

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Interior

The transferring of the cathedral favored the urbanization of the zone that, with the construction of it walls, in 1155, and the fusion of the three ancient city nuclei (castrum, civitas and burgus), became the heart of the city. The piazza, in absence of other public squares and centers of lay power, was the only city's public space for the whole Middle Ages. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Gelasius II in 1118. Starting from 1133 the church had archiepiscopal rank. After the fire of 1296, provoked by fights between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the building was partly restored and partly rebuilt. Between 1307 and 1312 the façade was completed, the inner colonnades rebuilt with capitals and matronei added.

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Cappella di San Giovanni Battista (1450-1465)

The Romanesque structures remained pretty untouched, and frescoes of religious subject were also added. Various altars and chapels have been erected between the 14th and 15th the century. The small loggia on the northeastern tower of the façade was built in 1455; the opposite one, in Mannerist style, is from 1522. In 1550 the Perugian architect Galeazzo Alessi was commissioned by the city magistrates to plan the reconstruction of the entire building; however, he executed only the covering of the nave and aisles, the pavement, the dome and the apse. The construction of the cathedral end in the 17th century. The dome and the medieval parts were restored in 1894-1900.

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Cappella di San Giovanni Battista (1450-1465)

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Basilica di San Zeno (Verona, Italy)

The Basilica di San Zeno (also known as San Zeno Maggiore) is the best known religious building of Verona, Northern Italy. Its fame rests partly on its architecture and partly upon the tradition that its crypt was the place of the marriage of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Together with the abbey which forms an annex, it is entitled to St. Zeno of Verona.

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Façade

The church of San Zeno constituted the model for all subsequent Romanesque edifices in Verona. Built of cream-coloured tuff, the facade is divided into three vertical components, the central nave surmounted by a pediment and the two aisle with sloping rooflines, all supported upon small pendented blind arcades. The intersections of the three parts are marked by angled pilasters ending in foliate capitals below the pediment. The bell tower stands as a separate building. It is 72 m-high and was begun in 1045, being finished in 1173.

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The Apse and the Crypt

Interior

The interior of the church is on three levels with an extensive crypt on the lower level, the church proper and a raised presbytery. The presbytery is raised on an arcade above the crypt which thus remains visible from the nave. The presbytery is accessible by stairs in the aisles. The High Altar houses the sarcophagus of Sts. Lupicinus, Lucillus and Crescentianus, all Veronese bishops. On the left of the apse, over the sacristy's entrance, is a Crucifixion scene from the School of Altichiero, while in the small left apse is a red marble statue of St. Zeno of the 12th century, which is the most venerated image in Verona.

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Frescoes

Mantegna Altarpiece

The most important artwork of the basilica is the polyptych by Andrea Mantegna, known as San Zeno Altarpiece. Only the upper paintings are original, however, since the predellas were stripped by the French in 1797 and never returned.

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Mantegna Altarpiece

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San Zaccaria (Venice, Italy)

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The Chiesa di San Zaccaria (St. Zacharias) is a church in Venice, dedicated to the father of John the Baptist, whose body it supposedly contains. It is a large edifice, located in the quiet Campo San Zaccaria, just off the waterfront to the south east of St. Mark's basilica. The present church was built in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles between 1444 and 1515. Antonio Gambello was the principal architect, but the facade was completed by Mauro Codussi.

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Interior

The first church on the site was founded by Doge Giustiniano Particiaco in the 9th century and eight doges are buried in the still extant crypt. The original Romanesque church was rebuilt in the 1170s (when the present campanile was built) and was replaced by a Gothic church in the 14th century. The church was attached to a Benedictine monastery, which was visited by the doge annually at Easter in a ceremony which included presentation of the cornu (ducal cap). This tradition was begun after the monks donated land for the extension of the Piazza San Marco in the 12th century.

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Cappella di San Tarasio

The interior of the church has an apse surrounded by an ambulatory lit by tall Gothic windows, a typical feature of Northern European church architecture which is unique in Venice. The walls of the aisles are entirely covered with paintings by Tintoretto, Angelo Trevisani, Giuseppe Salviati, Giovanni Bellini, Antonio Balestra, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Palma the Elder and Van Dyck. The artist Alessandro Vittoria is buried in the church, his tomb marked by a self-portrait bust.

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Madonna in Trono e Santi (Giovanni Bellini)

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Spoleto Cathedral (Spoleto, Italy)

The church is essentially an example of Romanesque architecture, with a naves and two aisles crossed by a transept, if subsequently modified. It was built from the second half of the twelfth century after the city had been devastated by Frederick Barbarossa's troops, over an area where previously lay a first cathedral, dedicated to San Primiano and destroyed by the emperor. A notable external porch and the belfry were added in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, respectively.

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The façade is divided into three bands. The lower one has a fine architraved door with sculpted door-posts. Two pulpits are provided on each side of the porch. The upper bands are separated by rose windows and ogival arches. The most striking feature of the upper façade is the mosaic portraying Blessing Christ, signed by one Solsternus (1207). The part of the belfry contemporary with the church reuses Roman and earlier Medieval elements.

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Frescoed Apse, by Filippo Lippi

ArtWorks

The interior was significantly modified in the 17th-18th century. It has kept the original Cosmatesque floor of the central nave and the frescoed Apse. The paintings of the latter were finished in 1467–1469 by Filippo Lippi and his pupils Fra' Diamante and Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia: they depict scenes from the Life of the Virgin. Lippi is buried in the right arm of the transept.

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Frescoed Apse, by Filippo Lippi (detail)

Also noteworthy are the Altar Cross by Alberto Sozio, dated 1187, a Byzantine icon donated to the city by Barbarossa as a peace sign and the Pinturicchio's frescoes in the Chapel of the Bishop of Eroli. Other frescoes from the 16th century are in the next chapel. The church houses also a polychrome wood statue of the Madonna (14th century) and a Choir (16th century) with painted altar and tabernacle, in the Relics Chapel. Under the latter lies the crypt of the former cathedral of San Primiano.

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Chapel of the Bishop of Eroli (Pinturicchio)

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Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura (Rome, Italy)

Sant'Agnese fuori la Mura ("Saint Agnes Outside the Wall") is a basilica church in Rome, in which Saint Agnes's bones are reputed to rest.

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The underground area and built a large private mausoleum over it which is now known as the "mausoleo di Santa Costanza" (she was venerated as saint, even though she was not one officially), while the church of Saint Agnes was then built aside. The floor level of the 7th century church is at the level of the catacomb floor, and the public street entrances are at the level of the 2nd floor gallery. Mosaics from the Honorius' edifice are still present. This church was also built with a separate upper gallery for women (matronaeum), similar to that of San Lorenzo fuori le mura. Saint Emerentiana was also buried here.

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The Apse

It is in this church that on the feast day of St. Agnes (January 21), two lambs are specially blessed, usually by the pope after a pontifical high Mass; their wool is later woven into pallia, ceremonial neck-stoles sent by the popes to newly-elevated Metropolitan-archbishops to symbolise their union with the papacy. The church is currently administrated by a French traditionalist order, the Canons Regular of San Giovanni in Laterano.

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Interior

A popular local legend says that every lord mayor of Rome secretly comes to pray at this church, on the third night after his election; in fact, there is little evidence that new sindaci really do so. The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Agnetis Extra moenia is Camillo Ruini. The church is the topic of Canadian author and anthropologist Margaret Visser's book The Geometry of Love, published in 2000, which describes it in exhaustive detail and discusses aspects of history, theology, architecture, symbolism and the emotional and aesthetic effects of visiting the church.

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Tha mosaics

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Mausoleo di Santa Costanza (Rome, Italy)

Santa Costanza is a church in Rome, built under Emperor Constantine I and place of burial (mausoleum) of his daughters Constantina and Helena. Later, Constantina was venerated as saint, with the Italian name of Costanza, and the church was dedicated to her.

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The church was built under Constantine, probably by Constantinia, next to the cemetery of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura, where Saint Agnes, who allegedly had healed Constantina, was buried. After their deaths, Constantine's daughters Constantina and Helena were buried here. Since Consantina was venerated as saint, the mausoleum was consecrated as a church in 1254 by Pope Alexander IV. After the church was restored in 1620 by Cardinal Fabrizio Veralli, Constantina's magnificent porphyry sarcophagus was moved to the Vatican Museums. The Church was originally a mausoleum.

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Interior

The existing building that is Santa Costanza rests at the southern flank of the cemetery basilica of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura, not far from the Via Nomentana some three kilometers north of the gates of the Aurelian Walls. The circular building is twenty-nine meters in diameter, with a central circular chamber eleven and a half meters wide, separated from a ring-shaped ambulatory by twelve pairs of radiating columns.

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The mosaics

Santa Costanza's exterior survives today in its except for the loss of its outer ambulatory. What remains of the interior of the building is ornately decorated with marble and tesserae mosaics which hint at a rich patronage of both pagan and early Christian provenance. The twelve pairs of columns which encircle the central chamber are of fine green and red marble, and are colour coordinated to the points of the cross. The ambulatory ceiling is vaulted, and decorated with mosaics which recall classical themes of Bacchic myth and early Christian beliefs. These same mosaics, like much of Santa Costanza have also been interpreted as discussing notions of the after-life.

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The Ambulatory

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Oratorio di San Giorgio (Padua, Italy)

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St. George's Oratory, in Padua, Italy, is a Roman Catholic church built by the Marquis of Soragna in 1376. The chapel was probably built in 1377.

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View of interior

The frescoes

Founded in 1377 as a mortuary chapel, St. George’s oratory holds a great cycle of frescoes by Altichiero da Zevio and Jacopo Avanzi, with scenes of the lives of St. George, Catherine and Lucy.

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Frescoes by Altichiero da Zevio

The adjacent Scuola del Santo keeps some frescoes and paintings, among them three works by Titian (1511).

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Frescoes by Altichiero da Zevio

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Even if it's forbidden to take pictures, I found some "illegal" photos on flickr :D

Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Italy)

The Scrovegni Chapel, or Cappella degli Scrovegni, also known as the Arena Chapel is a church in Padua, Veneto, Italy. It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305, that is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art.

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The church was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità at the Feast of the Annunciation, 1305. Giotto's fresco cycle focuses on the life of the Virgin and celebrates her role in human salvation. The chapel is also known as the Arena Chapel because it was built on land purchased by Enrico Scrovegni that abutted the site of a Roman arena. This space is where an open-air procession and sacred representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin had been played out for a generation before the chapel was built. A motet by Marchetto da Padova appears to have been composed for the dedication on March 25, 1305.

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The chapel before restyling

The wealthy moneylender Enrico Scrovegni had the private chapel built directly next to the family palazzo on his large estate. He commissioned its decoration by Giotto, Italy's preeminent painter of the time. It is often suggested that Enrico built the chapel in penitence for his father's sins. Enrico's father Reginaldo degli Scrovegni is the usurer encountered by Dante in the Seventh Circle of Hell. But a recent study provides extensive evidence that Enrico himself was involved in usurious practices and that the chapel was intended as restitution for his own sins. Enrico's tomb is in the apse, and he is also portrayed in the Last Judgment presenting a model of the chapel to the Virgin.

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Detail of Giotto's frescos

Though the chapel was ostensibly a family oratory, it served some public functions related to the Feast of the Annunciation. Apart from Giotto's work, the chapel is unornamented and features a barrel vault roof. Giotto's Last Judgment covers the entire wall above the chapel's entrance and includes the aforementioned devotional portrait of Enrico. Each wall is arranged in three tiers of fresco groups, each with four two-meter-square scenes. Facing the altar the sequence begins at the top of the right hand wall with scenes from the life of the Virgin, including the annunciation of her mother and the presentation at the temple. The series continues through the Nativity, the Passion of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the Pentecost. The panels are noted for their emotional intensity, sculptural figures, and naturalistic space. Between the main scenes Giotto used a faux architectural scheme of painted marble decorations and small recesses.

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The chaple during restyling

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A little corner of Cataluña in Sardinia :)

Alghero Cathedral (Sardinia, Italy)

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Alghero Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria Immacolata di Alghero) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Alghero in the province of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. It was the seat of the Bishop of Alghero from 1503 to 1986, and since 1986 that of the Bishop of Alghero-Bosa.

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The gothic portal

Alghero was designated as a diocesan seat in 1503 but construction work on the cathedral did not begin until the 1530; it was not opened until 1593, and not finished and consecrated until 1730. The church was originally in Catalan-Gothic style, as can be seen in the five chapels and ambulatory of the presbytery, which also includes the octagonal base of the bell tower.

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The marble Altar

The nave and the two aisles are however in Late Renaissance style. In the 20th century a Neo-Classical narthex was added to the façade, which dramatically changed its appearance.

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The statues

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Very informative thread dedicated to very beautiful structures!
Thank you!

San Bernardino (L'Aquila, Italy)

This is a Renaissance Church, erected in St. Bernardine of Siena's honour by his Aquilan disciples, St. Giovanni da Capestrano et St. Giacomo della Marca.

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The elegant facade, finished between 1525 and 1542 by the architect Cola d' Amatrice, is supposed to incorporate in its three orders in Doric, Ionic and Corinthian style, the spirit and fashion of the day which tended towards an exultation of the Classical Period.

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Interior

The interior, after the catastrophic earthquake of 1703, was re-decorated in Baroque style. The body of the Saint is placed in the mausoleum built by Silvestro dell'Aquila, pupil of Donatello, situated in the right aisle.

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Mausoleo di San Bernardino

Most noteworthy are a valuable altar-piece by Andrea della Robbia, a Madonna in polychrome terracotta and the tomb of Maria Pereira Camponeschi found on the left of the main altar, which is also the work of Silvestro.

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Sepolcro

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Iglesia di San Francesco (Alghero, Sardinia, Italy)

Alghero is a town of about 42,000 inhabitants. It lies in the province of Sassari in north-western Sardinia.

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Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea, Alghero was born around a fortified port, founded around 1102 by the Genoese Doria family. The Doria ruled it for centuries, apart from a brief period under the rule of Pisa (1283-1284). In 1353 it was captured by the Aragonese under Bernardo de Cabrera, and could later grow thanks to the arrival of Catalan colonists: in the early 16th century Alghero received the status of King's City (ciutat de l'Alguer) and developed economically.

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Interior

The Catalan language

A minority of people in Alghero speak a Catalan dialect, introduced when Catalan invaders repopulated the town after expelling the autochthonous Sardinian population in 1372. Catalan was replaced as the official language by Spanish in the seventeenth century, then by Italian. The most recent linguistic research conducted showed that 22.4% of the population speak Algherese Catalan as a first language and around 90% have some understanding of the language.

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The Altar

The church of St. Francis

The church of St. Francis (1360, rebuilt in the late 16th century). Original Catalan-Gothic parts can be seen over the high altar, the presbytery chapels and the San Sacramento Chapel. The bell tower is from the first half of the 16th century.

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The cloister

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Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo (Anacapri/Capri, Italy)

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Church of S. Michele Arcangelo (known also as Church of the Earthly Paradise), Anacapri (Capri), Campania, Italy.

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The building was designed around a central lay-out with a cupola and an octagonal floor-plan fanning out into six radial niches with apses. The Church preserves original baroque altars in painted wood and a choir (also in wood) positioned over the vestibule at the entrance.

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Built in 1719, the church was most probably designed by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro as part of a convent which was subsequently demolished. The extraordinary tiled pavement depicting the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, was created in 1761 in Naples by Leonardo Chiaiese, a tilemaker from the Abruzzo region, following the design of Francesco Solimena.

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Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (Castell'Arquato, Italy)

Castell'Arquato is an Italian town located on the first hills of Val D’Arda in Emilia-Romagna of the province of Piacenza, approximately 30 km from Piacenza and 35 km from Parma. Places nearby include Bacedasco, Vigolo Marchese, Fiorenzuola d'Arda, Lugagnano Val d'Arda, and Vernasca.

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A Medieval town of traditional structure which has maintained its appearance as it was in the early 10th century, the Old Town of Castell'Arquato is a high rock which in other times was strategically important for dominating the valley, now surrounded by the village. Its structure has led to appearances in movies such as Ladyhawke with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.

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The origins of Castell'Arquato are uncertain. It is believed originally it was a Roman military settlement (castrum). The first historical news concerning Castell’Arquato (known as la Pieve) appear in the 8th century. Castell'Arquato seems to have been constructed by a "noble and powerful Domini named Magno." Magno built the squared based castle and a church "In honor Mater Dei" (756-758).

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The main square is dramatically embellished by an austere Romanesque basilica, the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta. It has retained most of its original fortifications. Its hilltop location is so remote that it was a favorite headquarters for the hired military commanders who defended the minuscule empires of the Middle Ages.

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It takes a lifetime or more to visit all the churches in Italia !!!

Gorgeous set of photographs. Thanks for posting them.